Faculty Profiles - ISHII Keiko

Gene and culture coevolution and interaction: A review of empirical findings and future directions

Other Link： http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1948550621999273

Ishii Keiko

JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW Vol. 65 ( 2 ) page： 186 - 204 2022

Language：Japanese Publisher：JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW

A fundamental question is how cultural phenomena are created (i.e., how cultures are formed and maintained, and why different cultures have emerged). One approach to this question is to focus on the possibility that genes and sociocultural environments have coevolved and interacted. This review highlights empirical findings on the coevolution of genes and culture and the genetic basis of sociocultural differences including Western and Eastern cultural differences. Moreover, this review refers to the problem of false-positive associations between gene polymorphism and behavioral traits in the studies on gene and culture coevolution and interaction. Future directions and research strategies in studies on gene and culture coevolution and interaction are discussed.

DOI： 10.24602/sjpr.65.2_186

CiNii Research

Cultural differences in social support seeking: The mediating role of empathic concern. Reviewed International coauthorship International journal

Shaofeng Zheng, Takahiko Masuda, Masahiro Matsunaga, Yasuki Noguchi, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Hidenori Yamasue, Keiko Ishii

PLoS ONE Vol. 16 ( 12 ) page： e0262001 2021.12

Authorship：Last author Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)

Prior research has found that East Asians are less willing than Westerners to seek social support in times of need. What factors account for this cultural difference? Whereas previous research has examined the mediating effect of relational concern, we predicted that empathic concern, which refers to feeling sympathy and concern for people in need and varies by individuals from different cultures, would promote support seeking. We tested the prediction in two studies. In Study 1, European Canadians reported higher empathic concern and a higher frequency of support seeking, compared to the Japanese participants. As predicted, cultural differences in social support seeking were influenced by empathic concern. In Study 2, both empathic concern and relational concern mediated cultural differences in support seeking. Japanese with lower empathic concern but higher relational concern were more reluctant than European Americans to seek social support during stressful times. Finally, loneliness, which was more prevalent among the Japanese than among the European Americans, was partially explained by social support seeking.

DOI： 10.1371/journal.pone.0262001

A Genetic Variation in the Y Chromosome Among Modern Japanese Males Related to Several Physiological and Psychological Characteristics Reviewed International coauthorship

Masahiro Matsunaga, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Takahiko Masuda, Yasuki Noguchi, Hidenori Yamasue, Keiko Ishii

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Vol. 15 page： 774879 2021.12

Authorship：Last author Language：Japanese Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Frontiers Media SA

Previous studies in population genetics have proposed that the Y-chromosomal (Y-DNA) haplogroup D ancestor likely originated from Africa. The haplogroup D branch next started Out-of-Africa migration, rapidly expanded across Eurasia, and later diversified in East Asia. Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55, one of the branches of haplogroup D, is only found in modern Japanese males, suggesting that individuals with Y-DNA haplogroup D migrated from the Eurasian continent. Based on previous observations, Y-DNA haplogroup D is expected to be associated with some male characteristics including personality. Therefore, this study investigated whether the Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55 is associated with several physiological and psychological characteristics, including exploratory motivation and human relationship-related perception. We recruited Japanese young adult males and females and investigated the association between Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55, physiological [body mass index (BMI)], and several psychological parameters [perceived number of close friends, behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system (BIS/BAS), perceived happiness, and perceived loneliness]. The results indicated that males with haplogroup D-M55 had a higher BMI and more close friends, compared with non-carrier males. Additional multiple regression analyses, which tested the hypothesis that haplogroup D-M55 predicts BMI and perceived number of close friends, confirmed our hypothesis, even after controlling for the potentially confounding variables of age and sex. We also analyzed the gene–gene interaction between haplogroup D-M55 and an autosomal gene polymorphism associated with BMI and human relationships, such as the dopamine D2 receptor gene (<italic>DRD2</italic>: rs1800497). Results showed gene–gene interactions between haplogroups D-M55 and <italic>DRD2</italic> in BMI. Based on these findings, it is demonstrated that Y-DNA haplogroup D is associated with human personality.

DOI： 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.774879

なぜ人（ヒト）は協力し助け合うのか、そして文化比較研究の意義とは―新谷論文へのコメント― Invited

A REEXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE AND DOPAMINE D4 RECEPTOR GENE INTERACTION ON SOCIAL ORIENTATION Invited Reviewed International coauthorship

ISHII Keiko, MASUDA Takahiko, MATSUNAGA Masahiro, NOGUCHI Yasuki, YAMASUE Hidenori, OHTSUBO Yohsuke

PSYCHOLOGIA Vol. advpub ( 0 ) 2021.7

Authorship：Lead author,　Corresponding author Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Psychologia Society

The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) is associated with novelty-seeking and risk-taking behaviors that have had an adaptive value in the history of human migration. It also plays a role in moderating the extent to which people adhere to cultural norms and practices. The aim of this study was to replicate previous findings about how DRD4 polymorphism interacts with cultural differences in social orientation, which revealed Westerners’ emphasis on independence and East Asians’ emphasis on interdependence. Testing Japanese and European Canadian undergraduates (n = 784), we succeeded in replicating these previous findings: the Canadian students were more independent, whereas the Japanese students were more interdependent. However, none of the interaction effects between culture and DRD4 were significant. Implications for candidate gene research investigating gene–environment and gene–culture interactions are discussed.

DOI： 10.2117/psysoc.2021-b014

Do culture and oxytocin receptor polymorphisms interact to influence emotional expressivity? Reviewed International coauthorship

Keiko Ishii, Takahiko Masuda, Masahiro Matsunaga, Yasuki Noguchi, Hidenori Yamasue, Yohsuke Ohtsubo

Culture and Brain Vol. 9 page： 20 - 34 2021.6

石井敬子

心理学評論 Vol. 63 page： 346 - 353 2021.3

The effect of speaker-specific auditory images on reading in Japanese Reviewed International journal

Yuichi Mori, Keiko Ishii

Current Psychology Vol. 39 ( 6 ) page： 2343 - 2350 2020.12

Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media LLC

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Auditory images for speech are preserved and can be accessed during reading. This research, conducted in Japan, examined whether and to what extent previous findings on the influence of speaker-specific auditory images in reading can be generalized to non-English speakers in a different cultural context. In two studies, Japanese participants were asked to read a text aloud after being informed that the text had been written by either a fast speaker or a slow speaker whose speech they were to listen to. The participants read the episode more slowly when it was attributed to a slow speaker than when it was attributed to a fast speaker. Individual differences in one's mimicry of the speaker moderated the influence of speaker-specific auditory images in reading. The influence was confirmed only for those who consciously mimicked the speaker. In contrast, situational cues manipulated to generate affiliation with and closeness to the speakers did not influence the participants' reading times.

DOI： 10.1007/s12144-018-9946-z

Other Link： http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-018-9946-z/fulltext.html

Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) and Childhood Adversity Influence Trust. Reviewed International coauthorship International journal

Shaofeng Zheng, Takahiko Masuda, Masahiro Matsunaga, Yasuki Noguchi, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Hidenori Yamasue, Keiko Ishii

Psychoneuroendocrinology Vol. 121 page： 104840 - 104840 2020.11

Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)

Early-life environments have been associated with various social behaviors, including trust, in late adolescence and adulthood. Given that the oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (OXTR rs53576) moderates the impact of childhood experience on social behaviors, in the present study, we examined the main effect of childhood adversity through a self-report measure and its interactions with OXTR rs53576 on general trust among 203 Japanese and 200 European Canadian undergraduate students. After controlling for the effect of culture, the results indicated that childhood adversity had a negative association with general trust, and that OXTR rs53576 moderated the impact of childhood adversity on general trust. Specifically, the negative association between childhood adversity and general trust is only significant among homozygote A-allele carriers. These findings demonstrated that OXTR rs53576 moderated the relations between childhood experiences and social functioning in early adulthood.

DOI： 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104840

Residential Mobility Fosters Sensitivity to the Disappearance of Happiness Reviewed International coauthorship International journal

Keiko Ishii, Asuka Komiya, Shigehiro Oishi

International Journal of Psychology Vol. 55 ( 4 ) page： 577 - 584 2020.8

Authorship：Lead author Language：English Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal) Publisher：Wiley

We conducted two studies to examine the hypothesis that residential mobility would evoke anxiety and foster sensitivity to signs of disapproval, such as the disappearance of happiness. American and Japanese participants were asked to watch happy-to-neutral movies and sad-to-neutral movies and judge the point at which they thought that their initial expressions had disappeared. We found that, regardless of cultures, participants who had experienced frequent moving (Study 1) and those asked to imagine and describe a mobile lifestyle of frequent moving (Study 2) judged the disappearance of happy faces faster than those who did not experience or imagine frequent moving. Our results were also in line with the previous finding in which Japanese were more vigilant than Americans in regards to the disappearance of happy faces. Moreover, we found that imagining a mobile lifestyle made participants feel more concerned than when imagining a stable lifestyle. The implications for the social skills needed for people in the globalising world are discussed.

DOI： 10.1002/ijop.12627