著者

針原 素子

出版者

東京女子大学比較文化研究所

雑誌

東京女子大学比較文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638186)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.80, pp.1-13, 2019

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Does the experience of connecting with strangers make us happy? To answer this question, Epley & Schroeder (2014) instructed American commuters on trains and buses to have a conversation with a stranger, to remain disconnected, or to commute as normal. They showed that participants reported a more positive experience when they connected with strangers than when they did not.Given some cross-cultural evidence that Japanese people are less likely to interact with strangers than Americans (e.g., Patterson et al., 2007), this study aims to investigate whether the consequence of connecting with strangers is the same in Japan as in the U.S.We instructed Japanese university students to connect with strangers during their commute (connection condition), to remain disconnected (solitude condition), or to commute as normal (control condition). The results showed that participants in the connection condition experienced a relatively more positive mood than those in the other conditions, but the difference was not significant. Further analyses showed that the more responses the participants received from others when they talked to them, the more positive a mood they experienced.The results indicate that the Japanese often fail to have positive interactions with strangers due to their implicit norm that they should not disturb others, but they also have positive experiences when they are successfully able to interact.