A new article led by a graduate student from Professor Uchida’s lab has been published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin international journal.

The study explored the impact of relational mobility on interpersonal behavior: Specifically, it tested the hypothesis that in low relational mobility environments a heightened sensitivity to social rejection may lead to a greater avoidance of decision-making and thus may foster interpersonal indecision.

To learn more and read the article, please follow this link.

Reference: 

A new article written in collaboration with Professor Uchida has been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology. The co-authors Dr. Gobel and Dr. Choi are both international researchers who stayed at Uchida-sensei’s lab during the period of the study.

The paper explores how social power fundamentally shapes the way people think and behave, from playgrounds to boardrooms. Specifically, the paper distinguishes between achieved power construal, where power is perceived as being based on personal merit and achievement, and entrusted power construal, where power is perceived as being granted by others.

The findings reveal that powerholders who adopt an entrusted power construal tend to exhibit greater psychological other-orientation (the tendency to take another’s perspective and feel what they feel) as well as stronger altruistic behavioral tendencies, compared to those who adopt an achieved power construal.

To learn more and read the article, please follow this link.

Reference: 

Gobel, M. S., Choi, E., & Uchida, Y. (2025). Entrusted power enhances psychological other‐orientation and altruistic behavioural tendencies. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64(2), e12857.

An article about BuddhaBot, a Buddhist chatbot developed by Prof Seiji Kumagai of the IFoHs, has been published in the newspapers Kobe shimbun, Sanin chūō shimpō, and Gifu Shimbun (January 1st, 2025).

The article includes a discussion of various topics surrounding the development of BuddhaBot and how generative AI may be used to improve counseling and everyday life.

To read the original article please follow the link below (Japanese):

https://www.sanin-chuo.co.jp/articles/-/704919

A new paper on the prevalence of honor values in the Mediterranean authored by Assistant Professor Alexander Kirchner-Häusler and Professor Yukiko Uchida has been published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Mediterranean societies are commonly labelled as “cultures of honor” in contrast with presumed “dignity” and “face” cultures of Anglo-Western and East Asian societies, but empirical investigations into the validity of these labels have been scarce. In the current study, the authors tested this categorization in two large-scale surveys with more than 11 societies from Mediterranean, East Asian, and Anglo-Western regions. The results suggest that a cultural logic of honor plays a role in some, but not all Mediterranean societies, and that collectively labeling these societies as “honor cultures” may therefore be oversimplistic. Furthermore, a methodological comparison showed that asking participants for their perceptions of values in their society may offer some benefits over asking for personal endorsement when studying cultural values.

Read more in the original article:

Vignoles, V. L., Kirchner-Häusler, A., Uskul, A. K., Cross, S. E., Rodriguez-Bailón, R., Bossom, I. R. L., Castillo, V. A., Gezici-Yalçın, M., Harb, C., Ishii, K., Karamaouna, P., Kafetsios, K., Kateri, E., Matamoros-Lima, J., Miniesy, R., Na, J., Özkan, Z., Pagliaro, S., Psaltis, C., … Wohl, M. J. A. (2025). Are Mediterranean Societies “Cultures of Honor?”: Prevalence and Implications of a Cultural Logic of Honor Across Three World Regions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672241295500