Bodily ownership and agency sensations in a natural state.

Our bodily sensation is a fundamental cue for our self-consciousness. Whereas experimental studies have uncovered characteristics of bodily sensation, these studies investigated bodily sensations through manipulating bodily sensations to be apart from one's own body and to be assigned to external, body-like objects. In order to capture our bodily sensation as it is, this questionnaire survey study explored the characteristics of bodily sensation using a large population-based sample (N = 580, comprising 20s to 70s age groups) without experimental manipulations. We focused on the sensations of ownership, the feeling of having a body part as one's own, and agency, the feeling of controlling a body part by oneself, in multiple body parts (the eyes, ears, hands, legs, nose, and mouth). The ownership and agency sensations were positively related to each other in each body part. Interestingly, the agency sensation of the hands and legs had a positive relationship with the ownership sensations of the other body parts. We also found the 60s age group had a unique internal configuration, assessed by the similarity of rating scores, of the body parts for each bodily sensation. Our findings revealed the existence of unique characteristics for bodily sensations in a natural state.

[Causal attribution of discrimination and favoritism in a disadvantaged group].

Two experiments investigated the hypothesis that the need to protect positive self-regards mediates the causal attribution of one's failure to discrimination. Female undergraduates read a scenario in which either the participant herself or another woman (in-group member) took a job interview. The outcome was depicted either as failing (Studies 1 and 2) or passing the interview (Study 2). Participants attributed the failure to gender discrimination only when the interviewers were unanimously sexists. The attribution to discrimination was negatively correlated with the state self-esteem in the social domain. When the protagonist was an in-group member, a moderate level of discrimination was sufficient to elicit the participant' s discrimination attribution. For the positive outcome scenario, the participants were more likely to acknowledge the influence of favoritism on their own success than on other's success. These results suggest that the unwillingness for attributing a failure to discrimination functions for the protection of the self-esteem among the members of a disadvantaged group. Implications for the study of coping strategies used by victims of discrimination are discussed.