Our ability to learn about the reputations of others-that is, who is likely to cooperate versus cheat-contributes greatly to cooperativeness in society. There has been recent debate whether humans employ memory bias favoring cheaters (i.e., there is an evolved module for the detection of cheaters) or whether no such bias exists (i.e., reputation learning is flexibly modulated by contextual factors). We report 3 experiments that address this issue by comparing persistence against extinction-which is a reliable measure of prepared fear learning (Öhman & Mineka, 2001)-between memories regarding cheaters and cooperators. In all experiments, participants learned to classify unfamiliar persons as either cooperators or cheaters, and, then, they were instructed to disregard those learned associations and told that they had been determined arbitrarily, which simulated a verbal extinction procedure in the fear conditioning paradigm (Hugdahl & Öhman, 1977). The results indicated that while postlearning changes in perceived trustworthiness were modulated by a contextual factor (appearance of the facial stimulus), the persistence of learning exhibited a cheater advantage: Cheaters remained perceived as untrustworthy to a greater extent than cooperators as trustworthy at the extinction period. Thus, there exists a cheater bias in human reputation learning, the proximate and ultimate mechanisms of which warrant further study.

In the current study, we examine the effect of physical coldness on personal moral dilemma judgment. Previous studies have indicated that utilitarian moral judgment—sacrificing a few people to achieve the greater good for others—was facilitated when: (1) participants suppressed an initial emotional response and deliberately thought about the utility of outcomes; (2) participants had a high-level construal mindset and focused on abstract goals (e.g., save many); or (3) there was a decreasing emotional response to sacrificing a few. In two experiments, we exposed participants to extreme cold or typical room temperature and then asked them to make personal moral dilemma judgments. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that coldness prompted utilitarian judgment, but the effect of coldness was independent from deliberate thought or abstract high-level construal mindset. As Experiment 2 revealed, coldness facilitated utilitarian judgment via reduced empathic feelings. Therefore, physical coldness did not affect the “cool-headed” deliberate process or the abstract high-level construal mindset. Rather, coldness biased people toward being “cold-hearted,” reduced empathetic concern, and facilitated utilitarian moral judgments.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the contents of meta-cognitive beliefs about thought suppression and to investigate the relationship between these beliefs and the paradoxical effects of thought suppression. In Study 1, we developed a scale measuring the endorsement of meta-cognitive beliefs about thought suppression. This measure, the Meta-cognitive Beliefs about Thought Suppression Questionnaire (BTQ, has four subscales: Distraction, Paradoxical Effect, Regret, and Promotion of Concentration. In Study 2 and Study 3, the BTQ showed sufficient criterion-related validity and test-retest reliability. In Study 4, we conducted an experiment to investigate the relationship between meta-cognitive beliefs about thought suppression and its paradoxical eftects. Results showed that the Paradoxical Effect subscale score significantly predicted the number of intrusive thoughts during thought suppression. The development process of meta-cognitive beliefs about thought suppression and implications for research about cognitive control are discussed.

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Incidents involving cancer chemotherapies may result in a critical situation. We analyzed the incident reports involving enforcement of cancer chemotherapies in terms of frequency and risk. Thereafter, we implemented practical training based on the analysis for preventing incidents. The incidence of "medication error" was the highest in frequency at 43％, followed by "line management error" 30％ and "inspected error" 27％. After training, the number of incident reports in 2009 involving enforcement of cancer chemotherapies decreased by 45％ , from 40 to 22 cases. The incidence per ward nurse involving enforcement of cancer chemotherapies was significantly higher in the non-participants (17/124, 0.137) than in the participants (5/125, 0.040) of the training. The results of questionnaires gathered from the participants indicated that a lack of knowledge about the antineoplastic was the chief cause of these incidents. Our findings suggest that practical training in consideration of the frequency and risk is effective for preventing incidents.