Gender differences in guilt aversion in Korea and the United Kingdom

Guilt aversion, which describes the tendency to reduce the discrepancy between a partner’s expectation and his/her actual outcome, is a key driving force for cooperation in both the East and the West. A recent study based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and online behavioral experiments reported that men show stronger guilt aversion than women and also suggested that men’s predominance in guilt aversion arises from stronger sensitivity to social norms. However, since the participants of that study were all Japanese, it remains unaddressed how common the gender difference in guilt aversion is. Here, we conducted online behavioral studies on people from Korea and the U.K. (Korea; n = 294, U.K.; n = 347) using the same trust game. We confirmed that men exhibit stronger guilt aversion than women in both countries. Furthermore, consistent with the Japanese study, our Lasso regression analysis for U.K. participants revealed that Big Five Conscientiousness (rule-based decision) correlated with guilt aversion in men. In contrast, guilt aversion in Korean men correlated with Big Five Neuroticism. Thus, our results suggest that gender differences in guilt aversion is universal but the underlying cognitive processes may be influenced by cultural differences.

Gender differences in guilt aversion in Korea and the United Kingdom

Guilt aversion, which describes the tendency to reduce the discrepancy between a partner’s expectation and his/her actual outcome, is a key driving force for cooperation in both the East and the West. A recent study based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and online behavioral experiments reported that men show stronger guilt aversion than women and also suggested that men’s predominance in guilt aversion arises from stronger sensitivity to social norms. However, since the participants of that study were all Japanese, it remains unaddressed how common the gender difference in guilt aversion is. Here, we conducted online behavioral studies on people from Korea and the U.K. (Korea; n = 294, U.K.; n = 347) using the same trust game. We confirmed that men exhibit stronger guilt aversion than women in both countries. Furthermore, consistent with the Japanese study, our Lasso regression analysis for U.K. participants revealed that Big Five Conscientiousness (rule-based decision) correlated with guilt aversion in men. In contrast, guilt aversion in Korean men correlated with Big Five Neuroticism. Thus, our results suggest that gender differences in guilt aversion is universal but the underlying cognitive processes may be influenced by cultural differences.

Job Quality in the Late Career in Sweden, Japan, and the United States

This paper examines job satisfaction and psychosocial and physical job quality over the late career in three contrasting national settings: Sweden, Japan and the United States. The data come from an ex-post harmonized dataset of individuals aged 50 to 75 years constructed from the biennial Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH, 2006–2018, n=13936 to 15520), Japanese Study of Ageing and Retirement (JSTAR, 2006–2013, n=3704) and the United States Health and Retirement Study (HRS, 2006–2016, n=6239 and 8002). The job quality outcomes were physical labour, psychosocial working conditions (time pressure, discretion, pay satisfaction, job security) and job satisfaction. Random effects modelling was performed with age modelled with spline functions in which two knots were placed at ages indicating eligibility for pensions claiming or mandatory retirement. Interestingly, in each country, post-pensionable-age jobs were generally less stressful, freer, and more satisfying than jobs held by younger workers.

Performance Evaluations for Individual Employees in Japan Are Low Relative to the US But May Change Over Time

Causal attributions help us explain behavior but vary according to cultural context. As Japan’s remuneration systems move away from seniority-based- towards individual performance-based-pay we wanted to test whether such changes would influence attributing contribution and reward in the workplace (remuneration psychology and behavior). After reading a workplace vignette, Japanese (Study 1 n = 197; Study 2 n = 235) and European American (Study 1 n = 201; Study 2 n = 186) participants attributed contribution and rewards (financial and status) to an individual employee, the team, management, owners and shareholders or luck. Japanese participants attributed greater contribution to luck than European American participants (Study 1), which was moderated by age such that older Japanese attributed greater contribution to luck than younger (Study 2). Testing workplace emotional beliefs (Study 2) suggests concern for workplace social harmony may explain these cross-cultural and within-culture generation effects.

Using Authentic Assessment to Measure Basic English Speaking Skill of Students Majoring in Japanese Study

This study aims at describing the implementation of authentic assessment to measure Basic English speaking skill of students majoring in Japanese study. The description consists of three parts, namely designing the authentic assessment, implementing the authentic assessment and scoring students’ speaking skill. This study applies qualitative descriptive method. The data was collected through class observation. The result of the study revealed that authentic assessment was considered as the most effective way in assessing students’ performance in the classroom as its ability to assess the whole process of learning rather than just testing students’ knowledge at the end of the course. In conducting the authentic assessment to measure Basic English speaking skill of students majoring in Japanese study, the lecturer designed the authentic assessment based on the six steps suggested by Pierce and O’Malley (1996), implemented performance assessment to measure the students speaking skill and used analytic rubric in scoring the students speaking skill.

Style-shifting in Usage Instructions of Food, Beverage, and Pharmaceutical Products in Japanese Language

The present article attempts to describe the shifting use of formal and informal styles in usage instruction discourse of food, beverage, and pharmaceutical products in Japanese. The aim is to explain the background of style-shifting from a formal style, indicated by -desu in adjectives and nouns and -masu in verbs, into an informal style without any -desu or –masu forms in place. The background is reviewed through the perspectives of both sociolinguistics and pragmatics. The data were collected from various food, beverage, and pharmaceutical product packages containing usage instructions in Japanese. Study results indicate that style-shifting does not only occur through spoken language (orally) but via written discourse, which maintains unchanging external factors or definite contexts. Style-shifting is not only affected by the status of the speech partner but also more likely affected by the content of the information delivered to the consumers. Aside from occurring within a single discourse, style-shifting is also observed at a narrower level, namely within one element of discourse conveying a relatively homogenous information.