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Research

Updated: September 5, 2008
Research Topics@b@Research Projects@b@About Nagoya

RESEARCH TOPICS

The central task for our lab is the study of social cognition in a broad sense. Social cognition is a subfield of social psychology, which is mainly concerned with how people make sense of the social world—other people around them, the group and the community that they belong to, and even the self as a potential source of influence on their social life. Like many researchers in this field, we explore cognitive processes such as categorization, memory, inference, and judgments about social events and agents. Furthermore, we are interested in studying motivational and societal factors that influence social information processing. Specific issues that we are currently focused on are as follows:
 

Stereotypes and prejudices

Once we categorize people into groups, we typically come to make oversimplified and/or exaggerated information processing. How and why does such stereotypical cognition take place? What are the cognitive or motivational processes underlying stereotypes and prejudices? These are the questions that we are trying to answer, mainly using experimental methods.
 

Social identity

People often show biased evaluations and behavior that favor their own group (i.e., gin-grouph) as compared to other groups (gout-groupsh). This is a typical example of the effect of social identity. Researchers have pointed out that social groups strive for desirable and distinctive social identity. This drive is regarded as a major source of intergroup conflicts observed in daily contexts, such as gender-based, racial, regional, and international contentions. Our empirical investigations aim to reveal the cognitive and affective components of different kinds of intergroup conflict.
 

Collectively shared cognition

The process of making sense of the social environment not only operates inside of an individualfs head, but also entails knowledge and beliefs that are shared by many people. One way to study such collective nature of social cognition is to look at the role of language and communication to shape and sustain the shared cognition. Our experiments examine how people transmit categorical and inferential information such as stereotypes and causal judgments in communicative contexts. Studying the role of language in our cognition also means the study of culture as a major basis and constituent of linguistic activities. The mutual influence among language, culture, and cognition is a very important research topic for our lab.
 

Social psychology and its legal implications

The Japanese society is currently under a major reformation of its legal system. An attempt to introduce a semi-jury system to the criminal court, the promotion of conflict resolution outside of the court (e.g., Alternative Dispute Resolution), and the emphasis on corporate responsibility and the protection of consumer rights all reflect the spirit of the judicial reform. In many of our empirical studies, we emphasize their legal implications as much as possible. Examples of our on-going research projects that have such applied potential involve biased information processing (e.g., stereotyping) in legal judgments, the role of language in constructing a legal case, and judgments of intentionality, causality, and responsibility concerning acts of individuals and groups.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

AS THE PROJECT LEADER

    E2007 - 2010 Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research, Japan Society for the
      Promotion of Science.
      The Effect of Cognitive and Motivational Factors on Legal Processes: Theoretical 
      and Empirical Investigations

    E2008 - 20011 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the
      Promotion of Science.
      A Social Psychological Study of the Mutual Relationship between Cognition and
      Verbal Communication

    E2010-2012 The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Joint Research
      Projects/Seminars (Japan-Australia).
      A psychological study on the dynamics of culture as a basis of prejudices. (Project
      collaborators: Yoshihisa Kashima and Nick Haslam, University of Melbourne)

    E2011-2014 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the
      Promotion of Science.
      Communication as a Tool for Promoting Interpersonal Relationships: A
      Linguistic-Psychological Model and Its Practical Applications

    E2011-2014 Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Japan Society for
      the Promotion of Science.
      Determinants and Consequences of Punitive Motives: A Psychology and Law
      Approach

    AS A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCHER

    E2004 - 2008 Australia Research Council Grant
      Cultural Dynamics of Narratives
      (Project Leader: Yoshihisa Kashima, University of Melbourne) @

    E2005 - 2008 JSPS-France Joint Project (CHORUS)
      Cross-Cultural Studies on the Human Resolution of Contradiction
      (Project Leaders: Hiroshi Yama, Kobe College, & Jean-Baptiste Van der Henst, Institut
      des Sciences Cognitives)

    WELCOME TO THE HEART OF JAPAN - NAGOYA

    The greater Nagoya area (aka the gMidlandh) is the third largest metropolitan area of Japan, and is literally located right in the middle of the nation. Tokyo is to the East and less than a 2-hour ride on the Super Express (gBulleth) Train, whereas Osaka is within an hour Westbound, with the ancient capital of Kyoto en route. Situated conveniently both for business and cultural activities, Nagoya is currently recognized as one of the most vibrant areas in this nation.

    Traditionally, this region has been one of the top industrial areas, housing major plants of big manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Honda, Shin Nippon Steel, not to mention Toyota, whose headquarters are in an adjacent city of Toyota. Because of these international business enterprises, Nagoya presents a prototype of cosmopolitanism in todayfs Japan. On the other hand, thanks to its historical background, the city still preserves traditional faces of Japanese culture. The mixture of the old and new exemplifies the characteristic of the entire nation, and it is indeed an ideal field for researchers of people and society.

    Another enjoyment of living in this region is the combination of natural beauty and urbane entertainments. In approximately 3 hours of driving North you will reach the entrance of the Japan Alps, which was the site of the 1988 Nagano Winter Olympics. Within an hour or so of driving South, you will find an array of gorgeous beaches awaiting. A whole variety of outdoor sports is available. Sports spectators should note that our home team in professional baseball, the Chunichi Dragons (the former home of now a Chicago Cub Kosuke Fukudome), won the 2007 Japan Series National Championship. In football, the Nagoya Grampas Eight (named after the famous Golden Dolphins on the rooftop of the Nagoya Castle and the number from the city emblem) is now coached by Dragan gPixyh Stoykovic, an all-time hero from the former Yugoslav national team. The abundance in natural resources are of course good for cuisines as well. Other large cities envy our local catch of sea food from the nearby Ise Bay, while the rich farm land in our backyard provides abundant fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable cost.

    The Chubu International Airport, located within 1 hour of train connections from the University, serves as a major Asian hub for international flights. The airport structure is popular among the local people as a kind of amusement park, with lots of entertainment, shops, fine restaurants, and even an open-air public bathhouse inside of the complex! Come visit us and experience these unique combinations of the new and old, the city and country, and innovative ideas and respect for conventions.

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