神戸学院大学心理学研究 2021 年 神戸学院大学心理学研究
第 4 巻 第 1 号 pp.23-302021 年

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原著論文

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Original Article（査読あり）The relationship between temperament of conformity,
the belief in a just world, and the practice of
COVID-19 countermeasures in Japan
Kazuhisa NAGAYA Department of Psychology, Kobe Gakuin University
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of individualsʼ conformity and belief in a just world(BJW) on their practice of countermeasures against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Japan.
Between April and May 2021, a survey was conducted with students attending a university in Hyogo Prefecture,
where COVID-19 was re-emerging. The results of the analysis showed that countermeasures that wereeasy to assimilate (i.e., wearing masks) were positively and significantly associated with conformity, while
countermeasures that were difficult to assimilate (e.g., personally collecting COVID-19-related information)
were not associated with conformity. Conversely, there was no relationship between individualsʼ BJW andtheir engagement in countermeasures, except for the intention to vaccinate; contrary to an initial prediction, asigniﬁcant negative correlation was found between these variables among male participants. The reasons for thisunexpected ﬁnding are discussed, along with the implications of this studyʼs other ﬁndings.
Keywords:conformity, belief in a just world, countermeasures, COVID-19, intention to vaccinate
Kobe Gakuin University Journal of Psychology
2021, Vol.4, No.1, pp.23-30

of persuasive messages (the effectivity of which isdetermined by said factors) could encourage more people
to engage in COVID-19 countermeasures. Based on priorstudies on the impact of COVID-19 in Japan, this study
aimed to examine whether individualsʼ tendency toward
conformity and their belief in a just world (BJW) could
lead them to engage in COVID-19 countermeasures.
In Japan, individualsʼ tendency toward conformity
was the underlying cause of countermeasures against
COVID-19 from the early stages of the pandemic.
Although the World Health Organization did not actively
encourage healthy individuals to wear masks in the earlystages of the outbreak (BBC, 2020), Nakayachi, Ozaki,
Shibata, and Yokoi (2020) found that Japanese peopleʼshigh mask-wearing rate was due to their tendency toconform to social norms. In other words, the higher thetendency toward conformity, the higher the rate of maskwearing behavior (see also Sakakibara & Ozono, inpress for a recent replication). In addition, Nakayachi,
Ozaki, Shibata, and Yokoi (in press) also reported that

1. Introduction
The novel coronavirus (i.e., SARS-CoV-2, which causes
the coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) pandemic hasforced individuals to make major changes in their lifestyle.
As a result of COVID-19 containment measures, notonly has it become more diﬃcult to travel abroad, people
worldwide have also been restricted from leaving theirhomes for non-essential reasons. These unprecedented
circumstances have caused individuals to adopt new
behaviors, such as wearing masks even when going out for
short periods of time, avoiding crowds, and maintaining
social distancing in public spaces. The adoption of thesecountermeasures by all individuals is expected to reduce
the spread of the disease and facilitate their return to a preCOVID-19 lifestyle.
However, the aforementioned countermeasures constrain
peopleʼs freedom to a certain degree. Thus, it is important
to identify the psychological factors that enable people toactively accept such inconveniences, as the dissemination23

神戸学院大学心理学研究 2021 年

conformity had been a crucial factor that promoted handwashing behavior during COVID-19 pandemic. Thesefindings indicate that individualsʼ conformity influenced
the practice of COVID-19 countermeasures. The
abovementioned studies examined said influence using
items directly related to speciﬁc preventive behaviors (e.g.,“When you see other people wearing masks, do you thinkthat you should also be wearing a mask?”). Conformity
can be considered as a situation-dependent or situationindependent trait. Therefore, it can be said that priorstudies have primarily focused on situation-dependent
conformity, since they examined the relationship between
conformity and COVID-19 countermeasure behaviors
under speciﬁc circumstances. If solely situation-dependent
conformity leads to individualsʼ engagement in COVID-19
countermeasures, the association between conformity and
COVID-19 countermeasure behaviors will be limited tothe situations presented in the aforementioned studies.
Conversely, if an association can be found between
situation-independent conformity (i.e., a temperament ofconformity) and COVID-19 countermeasures, this would
suggest there is a cross-situational association between
conformity and COVID-19 countermeasures. Therefore,
it is necessary to examine whether an individualʼs generaltemperament of conformity leads to an increase in theeﬀectivity of COVID-19 containment measures.
In addition, studies on descriptive norms brought about
by the majority have pointed out that although suchnorms lead to eco-friendly behaviors and countermeasure
behaviors against natural disasters, those behavioral
changes are often passive and do not entail changes
in attitude or behavioral intention (Ohtomo & Hirose,
2007a; Ozaki & Nakayachi, 2015). For example, a study
on precautionary behavior toward earthquakes showedthat descriptive norms were only associated with speciﬁcbehaviors (e.g., storing food to prepare for earthquakes),
but they did not influence participantsʼ attitude or
behavioral intention (Ozaki & Nakayachi, 2015). Thus,
the behaviors elicited by conformity seemed to be basedon a superficial acceptance of assimilable behaviors,rather than on a deliberate decision-making process withan underlying understanding of the significance of thosebehaviors (Ohtomo & Hirose, 2007a; 2007b). Accordingly,
it is possible that behavioral changes caused by descriptive
norms are limited to behaviors that can be easily
assimilated, as such changes are not rooted in individualsʼ
awareness of the importance of those behaviors. In otherwords, an individualʼs conformity is expected to promote
countermeasures only when they encompass behaviors thatare easy to assimilate, such as wearing masks. Conversely,
conformity does not seem to promote countermeasuresthat imply behaviors that are difficult to assimilate. For

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example, countermeasures that imply behaviors that may
be difficult to assimilate include personally collecting
information on COVID-19 (e.g., keeping track of theaverage number of cases per day). Although such behaviors
are essential for an accurate assessment of the impact of
COVID-19 and the selection of eﬀective countermeasures,
it is unlikely that individualsʼ conformity would promote
such behaviors because they are less assimilable.
The findings of the focus theory of normative
conduct should be mentioned for supporting this studyʼs
predictions. Focus theory, which examines the influenceof descriptive and injunctive norms on behavior, indicatesthat behavioral changes resulting from descriptive norms
are more likely to occur when the behaviors in question
are salient or easily identified, as when the individual
sees others performing such behaviors (Cialdini, Reno, &Kallgren, 1990). Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume
that individualsʼ tendency toward conformity enhances
mask-wearing behavior due to its high assimilability, but
has a limited effect on behaviors with low assimilability(those that are less noticeable).
Studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic havealso suggested that, similar to conformity, individualsʼ
degree of BJW may be related to their engagement in
infection-preventive behaviors in Japan. As its nameimplies, the BJW assumes that society is fair and people
experience the consequences they deserve (Lerner, 1980);
in other words, it presumes that individuals who do gooddeeds will be rewarded, and those who do evil deeds will
be punished (Maes & Schmitt, 1999). Previous studies
have shown that individuals with a strong BJW are more
likely to behave in accordance with social norms (Wolfradt& Dalbert, 2003) and engage in prosocial behaviors(Bartholomaeus & Strelan, 2019), while they are lesslikely to tolerate socially undesirable behaviors, such asnorm violations and delinquency (Denke, Rotte, Heinze,& Schaefer, 2014; Sutton & Winnard, 2007), and suppress
inappropriate expression of anger in driving contexts(Nesbit, Blankenship, & Murray, 2012).
A cross-national study pointed out that the belief that
the COVID-19 infection was self-inflicted (based on the
BJW) was much higher among the Japanese population
than in Western countries or China (Miura, Hiraishi,
Nakanishi, & Ortolani, 2020). It has also been argued thatcriticism toward people who suffered from COVID-19
and those who do not comply with social norms might
be due to individualsʼ BJW (Murayama, 2020). In linewith these findings, it is possible to predict that the
BJW and conformity are factors that lead to normative
behavior, thus helping facilitate the practice of COVID-19
countermeasures.
Therefore, this study examined the relationship between

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NAGAYA: The relationship between temperament of conformity, the belief in a just world, and the practice of COVID-19 countermeasures in Japangeneral conformity, the BJW, and individualsʼ practice of
COVID-19 countermeasures. The following behaviors
were examined in this study: wearing a mask, avoiding
close contact with others, obtaining information related to
COVID-19, and intention to get vaccinated. Among these
items, wearing a mask is considered an easily assimilable
behavior because it is easy to identify whether others are
wearing masks by simply looking at them. Conversely,
personally collecting information about COVID-19 isassumed to be a behavior that is less assimilable. The
speciﬁc hypotheses of this study are as follows.
Hypothesis 1: Temperament of conformity is positively
correlated with wearing a mask.
Hypothesis 2: Temperament of conformity is notcorrelated with personally collecting information
about COVID-19.
Hypothesis 3: The BJW is positively correlated with thepractice of countermeasures.

Around this time, there was a resurgence of COVID-19
cases in the Kansai region of Japan, including Hyogo
Prefecture. As a result, stricter COVID-19 measures were
implemented in the prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo, andMiyagi for the ﬁrst time in Japan on April 5, 2021 (Japan
Times, 2021). Afterward, a third emergency declaration
was issued for the area, including Hyogo Prefecture, on
April 25, 2021. Thus, this syudy was conducted at the timeof the reemergence of COVID-19, targeting university
students located in the aﬀected area.

2.3 Measures
2.3.1 Conformity and BJW Measures
The Japanese version of the Conformity Scale by
Yokota and Nakanishi (2011), which was translated from
Mehrabian and Steﬂʼs (1995) scale, was used to measureparticipantsʼ tendency toward conformity. The Conformity
Scale consists of 11 items measuring the degree to whichpeople agree with the opinions of others in their daily
lives, including items such as “Basically, my friends are
the ones who decide what we do together.” This scale ismeant to measure the extent to which people tend to follow
the ideas, values, and behaviors of others.
To measure the participantsʼ BJW, eight items fromthe Japanese version of the BJW scale by Murayama
and Miura (2015), which was translated from Maes andSchmittʼs (1999) scale, were used. These items are related
to the belief in ultimate or immanent justice, which is
associated with the tendency to believe that consequences
are self-inﬂicted, as well as with the perception of equity,
including beliefs such as “Those who have suﬀered will becompensated one day.”Both the conformity and BJW scales were scored on a
5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all to 5 = very much). The
conformity (α = .70) and BJW scales (α = .89) were
found to have acceptable internal consistency, so each item
was averaged and used in the analysis.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 ParticipantsThis study recruited undergraduate students attending
a private university in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture,
Japan. University students were targeted for the survey
because young people are often unaware that they havebeen infected (due to their relatively stronger immune
system), thereby posing a greater threat to people who areat high risk of serious illness, which warrants the practiceof focused countermeasures (Japanese Ministry of Health,Labour and Welfare, 2021).
A study that examined the correlation between
personality (according to the Big Five traits) and
COVID-19 countermeasures found a weak correlation
between personality and countermeasures (|rs| < .20)
(Aschwanden et al., 2021). Based on this precedent, in thepresent study, a power analysis was conducted to determine
the sample size. The statistical power of the test was set
at 80%, signiﬁcance level at 5%, and expected correlationcoeﬃcient at .20. The power analysis (two-tailed) revealed
that a minimum sample size of 191 participants wasnecessary. To achieve this sample size, 206 participants
were recruited, and their data were collected. Of these, 10participants who failed to respond to at least one of theitems were excluded from the analysis, resulting in 196
participants (52.04% female; Mage = 19.08, SDage = 0.69)
being included in the analysis.

2.3.2 COVID-19 Countermeasures
The following preventive behaviors against COVID-19
were examined: wearing a mask, avoiding close contact
with others, collecting COVID-19-related information,and intention to get vaccinated. The responses to eachcountermeasure were scored on a 5-point Likert scale (1 =not at all to 5 = very much). The tendency to wear a mask
was assessed using four items: “I wear a mask even when
I go out for 10 minutes or less,” “I often wear a mask athome,” “I feel uneasy if I do not wear a mask when I havea conversation with others,” and “I always wear a mask
when I use public transportation.” The tendency to avoid
close contact with others was assessed using two items: “I

2.2 Study Period
This study was conducted from April 12 to May 7, 2021.

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神戸学院大学心理学研究 2021 年

try to keep a distance of at least 1 meter when talking withfriends” and “When I go out, I try to avoid places where
people gather.” Information collection was assessed using
two items: “I try to collect information about COVID-19
infection status” and “To some extent, I know how many
people are currently infected with COVID-19 in Japan.”
Further, the respondents were also asked about theirintention to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination
intention was assessed using two items: “If I have theopportunity to be vaccinated, I will take it” and “I plan toget vaccinated (or have already been vaccinated).” Since
acceptable internal consistency was observed for wearing amask (α = .50),1 avoiding close contact with others (α =.56), collecting information (α = .80), and intention to get
vaccinated (α = .74), the items were averaged and used in
the analysis.2

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order of the items within each category was randomized
for each participant. An informative message about
vaccination was presented before asking respondents
about their vaccination intention, wherein the possible
risks associated with vaccination were clearly indicated.
The message stated the following: “Vaccines are being
developed to combat the new coronavirus, which isspreading rapidly around the world. Most of the vaccinesthat have been developed have proven to be safe, butthere is still the possibility of unexpected side effects.”
All participants indicated their vaccination intention after
reading this message.
2.5 Ethical Considerations
This study was conducted after receiving approval
from the ethical research review board of Kobe Gakuin
University (Approval Number: SP20-27). Candidates
were briefed (both verbally and in writing) on the purposeof the study, the method of answering the questions,and the handling of personal information at the timeof recruitment. Only university students who agreed toparticipate responded to the survey items.

2.4 Procedure
Survey recruitment was conducted during class hours
in the university. Participants were asked to complete thequestionnaire by scanning a QR code on their smartphones.
The survey form was created via Google Form, while thesections were organized in the following order: gender,
age, conformity, BJW, COVID-19 countermeasures (except
for vaccination intention), and vaccination intention. The

2.6 Statistical Analysis
All the data analyses were conducted using R version
3.6.1 software (R Core Team, 2019). The zero-ordercorrelation coeﬃcients among the variables of conformity,
BJW, and COVID-19 countermeasures were calculated to
identify the correlations among them.

1 Although the mask-wearing score comprised four items, its
internal consistency was not high. Therefore, two items (i.e.,“I wear a mask even when I go out for 10 minutes or less” and“I always wear a mask when I use public transportation”) thatshowed high correlation (r = .61) were analyzed as a “two-item
mask-wearing score,” which showed results consistent withthose of the main analysis in the signiﬁcance tests.
2 In addition to these items, participants were asked about how
obligated they felt to comply with social distancing norms
and vaccination, and their anxiety about getting vaccinated.
Participants were also asked about descriptive norms on
vaccination. These items were not included in the analysis
because they were not directly related to the hypotheses of thisstudy.

3. Results
Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics and zero-ordercorrelation coefficients for age, gender, conformity, the
BJW, and COVID-19 countermeasures. The analysis
showed significant correlations between conformity andmask-wearing scores, while no significant associations
were observed between conformity and avoiding
close contact with others, information collection, andTable 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations (N = 196)
Variable
1. Age2. Gender (Female = 1, Male = 2)
3. Conformity
4. BJW
5. Wearing a mask
6. Avoiding close contact with others
7. Collecting information
8. Intention to get vaccinated

M
19.08
―
3.28
3.16
3.66
3.07
3.40
3.08

SD
0.69
―
0.53
0.94
0.59
0.92
1.08
1.21

1
―
.057
.088
-.133 †
-.104
-.110
.031
.135 †

Note. †p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01. BJW = belief in a just world.

26

2

3

4

5

6

7

―
-.063
-.232 **
-.086
-.049
-.065
.236 **―-.125 †
.244 **
-.061
.002
.078

―
-.094
.074
-.019
-.326 **―
.428 **.335 **.173 *―.416 **.225 **―.174 *

NAGAYA: The relationship between temperament of conformity, the belief in a just world, and the practice of COVID-19 countermeasures in Japan

vaccination intention. These results supported hypotheses
1 and 2. Conversely, the BJW did not exhibit a signiﬁcantassociation with any COVID-19 countermeasure, except
for vaccination intention. Thus, hypothesis 3 was notsupported. Furthermore, the BJW was significantly
negatively correlated with vaccination intention, indicating
the opposite of hypothesis 3. The implications of theseresults are presented in detail in the discussion section.
In order to examine whether these correlations wereconﬁrmed regardless of participantsʼ gender, the correlation
coefficients between the variables were calculated foreach gender (Tables 2 and 3). The results showed thatthe direction of the correlation was generally consistent
between the overall results and the gender-speciﬁc results.
However, the following diﬀerences were also found. For
male participants, conformity and the tendency to wear amask showed a significant positive correlation (r = .33,
p < .01) as in the analysis of the overall sample (r = .24,
p < .01). However, for female participants the directionof the correlation was consistent but not significant (r =.14, p = .16). More importantly, while the BJW and thetendency to wear a mask were significantly negatively
correlated among male participants (r = -.28, p < .01),
the opposite was true for female participants, showing amarginally significant positive correlation (r = .17, p =.09). In addition, the BJW and intention to vaccinate weresignificantly negatively correlated in both the overall (r= -.33, p < .01) and male samples (r = -.46, p < .01), butthere was no statistically signiﬁcant correlation for female
participants (r = -.08, p = .45).

4. Discussion
This study hypothesized that two types of personality
factors̶conformity and the BJW̶would influence
Japanese peopleʼs tendency to engage in COVID-19
countermeasures. The results of the study showed that themore individuals exhibited a tendency toward conformity,
the more likely they were to wear a mask. This result
supported hypothesis 1 and was consistent with previous
studies conducted in the early stages of the epidemic in
Japan (Nakayachi et al., 2020). However, conformity was
not associated with the tendency to avoid close contact
with others, to collect information, or the intention to get
vaccinated. For example, certain countermeasures (such ascollecting information privately) seemed to be behaviorsdifficult to assimilate. Therefore, the results indicate that
conformity only promotes COVID-19 countermeasuresthat are easy to assimilate.
Previous studies on earthquake prevention behaviors
have pointed out that information about social norms
could only lead to superficial behavioral changes andnot attitudinal change (Ozaki & Nakayachi, 2015). In
other words, it can be speculated that countermeasure
behaviors based on conformity were adopted as a resultof individualsʼ passive acceptance of those behaviors,rather than because they acknowledged the need for such
behaviors. Accordingly, in the present study, no association
was found for countermeasure behaviors that are lessassimilable.
In contrast, participantsʼ degree of BJW was not
associated with most COVID-19 countermeasures.

Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations for female participants (n = 102)
Variable
1. Age2. Conformity
3. BJW
4. Wearing a mask
5. Avoiding close contact with others
6. Collecting information
7. Intention to get vaccinated

M
19.04
3.31
3.36
3.71
3.12
3.47
2.81

1
―
-.030
-.166 †-.168 †-.126
.145
.180 †

SD
0.70
0.55
0.83
0.45
0.78
1.03
1.12

2

3

4

5

6

―
.065
.142
-.106
.004
.045

―
.167 †.230 *
.055
-.075

―
.354 **
.144
-.059

―
.260 **
.154

―
.117

Note. †p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01. BJW = belief in a just world.
Table 3 Descriptive statistics and correlations for male participants (n = 94)
Variable
1. Age2. Conformity
3. BJW
4. Wearing a mask
5. Avoiding close contact with others
6. Collecting information
7. Intention to get vaccinated

M
19.12
3.24
2.93
3.61
3.03
3.33
3.38

SD
0.67
0.51
1.00
0.71
1.06
1.13
1.23

1
―
.241 *
-.086
-.055
-.095
-.080
.069

Note. *p < .05; **p < .01. BJW = belief in a just world.

27

2

3

4

5

6

―
-.349 **
.328 **
-.031
-.009
.151

―
-.281 **
-.045
-.109
-.460 **―
.464 **.457 **.366 **―.529 **.312 **―.265 **

神戸学院大学心理学研究 2021 年

Previous studies have suggested that the BJW can lead tobehaviors that are consistent with social norms (Wolfradt& Dalbert, 2003). Furthermore, it has been suggested thatthe harsh evaluation of COVID-19 patients in Japan might
be due to the inﬂuence of the BJW among the population(e.g., Miura et al., 2020; Murayama, 2020). Based on theseﬁndings, this study hypothesized that the BJW would leadto norm-compliant behaviors (such as wearing masks
and getting vaccinated) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the results of the correlation analyses did notsupport this hypothesis. Furthermore, an unexpectedsignificant negative correlation was found between the
BJW and vaccination intention, indicating that the stronger
the BJW, the lower individualsʼ intention to get vaccinated.
A subsequent analysis showed that the negative correlation
between the BJW and vaccination intention was not foundamong female participants.
Since the results of this study were somewhat
unexpected, the findings were interpreted post hoc. The
BJW refers to the belief that the world is a fair and stable
place where sudden misfortunes do not occur, and thatpeople get what they deserve (Lerner, 1980; Murayama& Miura, 2015). Thus, prior studies have pointed out thatthe BJW serves as the basis for psychological stability andsubjective well-being (Hafer & Bègue, 2005). Further, the
BJW has been reported to increase optimism about the
future. For example, Sutton, Stoeber, and Kamble (2017)
showed that people who hold a strong BJW tend to thinkthat there will be more positive than negative events inthe future. In addition, Lucas, Alexander, Firestone, andLebreton (2009) demonstrated that, when assessing healthrisks that were difficult to prevent with the message thatindicates prevention is difficult, participants with strong
BJW were more optimistic about being able to preventthese health risks. Moreover, a meta-analysis found thatthe BJW was significantly positively correlated withextraversion (Nudelman, 2013), a Big Five personality
trait associated with optimism (Sharpe, Martin, & Roth,2011). Studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic
indicated that extraversion is associated with decreasedsocial distancing (Carvalho, Pianowski, & Gonçalves,2020) and more optimistic predictions about the end of theepidemic (Aschwanden et al., 2021). Given these ﬁndings,
the BJW could have led to more optimistic assessments of
the risks posed by COVID-19 (vis-à-vis being infected or
becoming severely ill), which in turn led to lower scores invaccination intention.
The eﬀect of gender diﬀerences in risk perception may
be one possible explanation for the male-speciﬁc negative
correlation between the BJW and vaccination intention.
Previous studies on risk perception have shown that
men tend to underestimate the risk of various hazards,

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compared with women (e.g., Nakayachi, Nagaya, &3
Yokoyama, 2018). This suggests that the interaction
between male participantsʼ lower level of risk-perception
and the optimistic outlook of the future brought about by
BJW may have resulted in the negative correlation between
BJW and vaccination intention among male participants.
The arguments stated above are a post-hoc interpretationof the results; therefore, further studies are needed to
conﬁrm these ﬁndings. Future studies should explore not
only the BJW and the intention to get vaccinated, but alsorisk-perception vis-à-vis COVID-19. In this way, it would
not only be possible to examine the hypothesis which
posits that COVID-19 risk perception has an interaction
effect with BJW on vaccination intention, but also to
examine the mediating process through which the BJW
influences subjective assessments of the likelihood of
infection and the possibility of becoming seriously ill (i.e.,
COVID-19-related risk perception), subsequently reducing
individualsʼ vaccination intention.
In addition, it should be noted that the absence of asignificant correlation between the BJW and vaccination
intention among female participants does not mean that
there is no correlation in the population. In other words,
it is possible that the ﬁndings in this paper were the resultof an unexpected sampling bias, and that there were no
gender-specific differences in the relationship between
BJW and vaccination intention. Therefore, it is necessary
to examine whether these findings can be confirmed byanalyzing a larger sample of each gender.

5. Limitations and Conclusion
The study had the following limitations. First, thisstudy did not examine a representative sample of theJapanese population, but rather university students inan area affected by the resurgence of COVID-19; thus,
the data analyzed may differ from those of the general
population in Japan. Therefore, conducting a nationwide
study is necessary, considering region-specific factors,
such as infection status and the capabilities of the regional
medical system. Second, the COVID-19 countermeasures
examined in this study were not exhaustive. Several
countermeasures, such as hand washing, hand disinfection
with alcohol, and room ventilation were not included. In
the future, it would be desirable to analyze countermeasure
behaviors comprehensively.
Despite these limitations, this study demonstrated

3 The inﬂuence of gender in risk perception has been highlighted
as possibly being driven by socio-economic factors, rather thaninnate diﬀerences (Flynn, Slovic, & Mertz 1994).

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NAGAYA: The relationship between temperament of conformity, the belief in a just world, and the practice of COVID-19 countermeasures in Japan

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that conformity was associated with certain COVID-19
countermeasures. Additionally, to my knowledge, this is theﬁrst study to show that the BJW may have a suppressive
eﬀect on vaccination intentions among men. By clarifying
the relationship between the individual differences inthe variables and COVID-19 countermeasures in moredetail, specific suggestions can be developed to create
more eﬀective persuasive messages to promote preventive
behaviors.

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7. Funding
This research was supported by JPSP KAKENHI (Grant
Number 21K13681).

8. Conflict of Interest
The author declared that there were no potential conﬂicts
of interest with respect to the authorship or the publicationof this article.
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