How does one deal with unfair behaviors? This subject has long been investigated by various disciplines including philosophy, psychology, economics, and biology. However, our reactions to unfairness differ from one individual to another. Experimental economics studies using the ultimatum game (UG), in which players must decide whether to accept or reject fair or unfair offers, have also shown that there are substantial individual differences in reaction to unfairness. However, little is known about psychological as well as neurobiological mechanisms of this observation. We combined a molecular imaging technique, an economics game, and a personality inventory to elucidate the neurobiological mechanism of heterogeneous reactions to unfairness. Contrary to the common belief that aggressive personalities (impulsivity or hostility) are related to the high rejection rate of unfair offers in UG, we found that individuals with apparently peaceful personalities (straightforwardness and trust) rejected more often and were engaged in personally costly forms of retaliation. Furthermore, individuals with a low level of serotonin transporters in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) are honest and trustful, and thus cannot tolerate unfairness, being candid in expressing their frustrations. In other words, higher central serotonin transmission might allow us to behave adroitly and opportunistically, being good at playing games while pursuing self-interest. We provide unique neurobiological evidence to account for individual differences of reaction to unfairness.

Internet surveys are currently used in many academic and marketing research fields. However, the results for these surveys occasionally show traces of response bias. In our study, we analyzed how response bias appears in lengthy preference judgments. 1042 respondents participated in lengthy sequential preference judgments. Three stimuli series were used: scene pictures, Attneave nonsense shapes, and point-symmetric figures. One hundred stimuli were selected for each series and individually displayed on a computer screen, with presentation order randomized for each respondent. Respondents were then asked to rate their degree of preference for each stimulus. Mean preference scores increased over the first 10–20 trials, then, gradually decreased from the middle to the last trial. Furthermore, participants tended to produce the maximum and minimum score during early trials. These results demonstrated that response bias can be a function of presentation order.

The Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred on 11 March 2011, which caused the leakage of radioactive materials into the environment. In this study, we report public concerns about radiation in Fukushima and Tokyo almost one year after the nuclear disaster. We examined the public concerns by analyzing the data from 1022 participants, 555 in Fukushima and 467 in Tokyo. They were asked whether they were concerned about radiation from some of six different types of sources, which could be answered in a binary way, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We found not only similarities, but also significant differences in the degrees of concerns between Fukushima residents and Tokyo ones. Fukushima residents more concerned about radiation from land, food and radon in larger rate than that of Tokyo ones, while Tokyo residents were concerned about radiation from medical care. Residents in neither location were concerned about radiation from space. Our results suggested that careful risk communication should be undertaken, adaptively organized depending on location and other factors, e.g. comprehension about radiation, presence of the experience of evacuation, and also age and gender of the people.

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify the functions of tourism interpretations of consumer products in a tourist-generating region (TGR) as a means of marketing the tourist destination region (TDR) through tea tourism. Design/methodology/approach: This is a case study of the Thai Shizuoka Green Tea brand working to promote tea tourism in Shizuoka, Japan. It is used to identify the functions of tourism interpretations of consumer products in a TGR related to the concept of brand identity. This paper assessed Thai consumers’ opinions on the efficiency of tourism interpretation through a sample of 404 questionnaires and with interviews of ten young females, the primary respondents. Findings: Tourism interpretations of the TGR’s consumer products are important for promoting the TDR through five premises: 1) motivating visitors to visit the destination, 2) communicating the place’s meaning, 3) targeting potential tourists, 4) differentiating the destination from other sites and 5) activating value co-creation. Premises 1 and 2 were assumed to stem from visitors’ enjoyment of the tea; the packaging motivated their visit to Shizuoka, its origin. Premise 3 concerns young women who view the product as a premium healthy drink. Premises 4 and 5 are based on the brand’s essence, implying the tea company’s partnership between Thailand and Japan. Originality/value: Tourism interpretation plays a significant role in TDRs’ success; however, it can be implemented with other consumer products and an efficient brand identity, to create an image of a destination.

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, Iitate Village has continued to be classified as a deliberate evacuation area, in which residents are estimated to receive an annual additional effective radiation dose of >20 mSv. Some companies still operate in Iitate Village, with a special permit from the Cabinet Office Team in Charge of Assisting the Lives of Disaster Victims. In this study, we measured the annual effective radiation dose to workers in Iitate Village from 15 January to 13 December 2013. The workers stayed in Iitate for 10 h and left the village for the remaining 14 h each working day. They worked for 5 days each week in Iitate Village, but stayed outside of the village for the remaining 2 days each week. We found that the effective radiation dose of 70% of the workers was <2 mSv, including natural radiation; the maximum dose was 3.6 mSv. We estimated the potential annual additional effective radiation dose if people returned full-time to Iitate. Our analysis supports the plan for people to return to their home village at the end of 2017.

Many practical decisions are more realistic concerning preventing bad decisions than seeking better ones. However, there has been no behavioral decision theory research on avoiding the worst decisions. This study is the first behavioral decision research on decision strategies from the perspective of avoiding the worst decisions. We conducted a computer simulation with the Mersenne Twister method and a psychological experiment using the monitoring information acquisition method for two-stage decision strategies of all combinations for different decision strategies: lexicographic, lexicographic semi-order, elimination by aspect, conjunctive, disjunctive, weighted additive, equally weighted additive, additive difference, and a majority of confirming dimensions. The rate of choosing the least expected utility value among the alternatives was computed as the rate of choosing the worst alternative in each condition. The results suggest that attention-based decision rules such as disjunctive strategy lead to a worse decision, and that striving to make the best choice can conversely often lead to the worst outcome. From the simulation and the experiment, we concluded that simple decision strategies such as considering what is most important can lead to avoiding the worst decisions. The findings of this study provide practical implications for decision support in emergency situations.