Papers by Yoshihisa Kashima
Personality and Social Psychology Review, Feb 28, 2020
What are the consequences of lay beliefs about how things are made? In this article, we describe ... more What are the consequences of lay beliefs about how things are made? In this article, we describe a Western folk theory of artifact creation, highlighting how intuitive dualism regarding mental and physical labor (i.e., folk psychology) can lead to the perceived transmission of properties from makers to material artifacts (i.e., folk physics), and affect people's interactions with material artifacts. We show how this folk theory structures the conceptual domain of material artifacts by differentiating the contemporary lay concepts of art/craft and industrial production, and how it influences people's evaluations of different types of artifacts and their makers. We propose that the folk theory and lay concepts of art/craft and industrial production are best understood within a specific sociohistorical context, and review potential sources of cross-cultural and cross-temporal variation. We conclude by making recommendations for future research and examining the implications for promoting environmental sustainability and social justice in production systems.
Climatic Change
Both climate scientists and non-scientists (laypeople) attribute extreme weather events to variou... more Both climate scientists and non-scientists (laypeople) attribute extreme weather events to various influences. Laypeople’s attributions for these events are important as these attributions likely influence their views and actions about climate change and extreme events. Research has examined laypeople’s attribution scepticism about climate change in general; however, few climate scientists are familiar with the processes underpinning laypeople’s attributions for individual extreme events. Understanding these lay attributions is important for scientists to communicate their findings to the public. Following a brief summary of the way climate scientists calculate attributions for extreme weather events, we focus on cognitive and motivational processes that underlie laypeople’s attributions for specific events. These include a tendency to prefer single-cause rather than multiple-cause explanations, a discounting of whether possible causes covary with extreme events, a preference for su...
This document is the final report for a CRC Low Carbon Living project called "Transformation... more This document is the final report for a CRC Low Carbon Living project called "Transformation to Low Carbon Living: Social psychology of low carbon behavioural practice". As outlined in the introduction, the purpose of this project was to identify low carbon behaviours and then both (a) develop a short measure that could be used to measure psychological readiness in people for engaging in low carbon behaviour and (b) provide a social psychological foundation for understanding when and why people will engage in low carbon behaviour. The short measure developed is called the Low Carbon Readiness Index (LCRI) and this report both demonstrates and discusses the many ways it can be used to understand and aid in the promotion of transformation to low carbon living. The authors also highlight the value of also considering the role of interpersonal factors.In chapter 2, the authors present behavioural practices theory, which provides a social psychological foundation for understand...
The Handbook of Culture and Psychology, 2019
What is culture for? What functions does culture serve? This chapter traces a historical backgrou... more What is culture for? What functions does culture serve? This chapter traces a historical background to these functionalist questions and examine their contemporary relevance. Although functionalist perspectives arose from Darwin’s evolutionism in social science and psychology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their theoretical implications were thoroughly criticized and gave way to the emergence of a newer, neo-functionalist thinking in the late twentieth century. A neo-functionalist perspective is discernible in a variety of theoretical approaches in culture and psychology. Its basic tenet suggests that culture is often, though not always, helpful for its adopters to adapt to their local environmental niche, meeting different types of environmental challenges, both natural and human made (built, economic, intergroup, intragroup, psychological). The chapter concludes by advocating that research on culture and psychology can play a critical role in helping humanit...
An organization’s success is influenced by its performance and one way of enhancing organizationa... more An organization’s success is influenced by its performance and one way of enhancing organizational performace is by improving the workers’ rate of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). In this regard, most research on OCB has beeb done in the West and there has been litte research on Indonesian spe cific OCB, even though Organ, Podsakoff, & MacKenzi (2006) have stated the frailness of OCB theory in the face of cultural differences. Consequently, Team 9 compiled a set of Indonesian specific dimensions if OCB in 2009 from both the Western (Podsakoff, Ma cKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000) and Eastern dimens ions (Farh, Earley, & Lin, 1997; Farh, Zhong, & Organ, 2004) of OCB. The objective of this research was to examine the relat ionship between OCB and leader-member exchange (LMX) the importance of the leader’s relationship with the workers, by using the newly composed OCB Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 235 permanent staff who work ed at financial institutions in Jakarta, ...
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2021
In Western societies, many polarized debates extend beyond the area of opinions, having consequen... more In Western societies, many polarized debates extend beyond the area of opinions, having consequences for social structures within society. Such segmentation of society into opinion-based groups may hinder communication, making it difficult to reconcile viewpoints across group boundaries. In three representative samples from Australia and the Netherlands ( N = 1,206), we examine whether perceived polarization predicts the quality (harmony, comfort, and experience of negative emotions) and quantity (avoidance of the issue) of communication with others in the community. We distinguish between perceived opinion differentiation (i.e., the extent to which opinions in society are divided) and perceived structural differentiation (i.e., the extent to which society fissions into subgroups). Results show that although opinion differentiation positively predicts the discussion of societal issues, the belief that these opinions reflect a deeper societal divide predicts negative communication ex...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
Opinion polarization is increasingly becoming an issue in today’s society, producing both unrest ... more Opinion polarization is increasingly becoming an issue in today’s society, producing both unrest at the societal level, and conflict within small scale communications between people of opposite opinion. Often, opinion polarization is conceptualized as the direct opposite of agreement and consequently operationalized as an index of dispersion. However, in doing so, researchers fail to account for the bimodality that is characteristic of a polarized opinion distribution. A valid measurement of opinion polarization would enable us to predict when, and on what issues conflict may arise. The current study is aimed at developing and validating a new index of opinion polarization. The weights of this index were derived from utilizing the knowledge of 58 international experts on polarization through an expert survey. The resulting Opinion Polarization Index predicted expert polarization scores in opinion distributions better than common measures of polarization, such as the standard deviati...
Taiwan has been a world leader in controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandem... more Taiwan has been a world leader in controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the Taiwan Government launched its COVID-19 tracing App the `Taiwan Social Distancing App', however the effectiveness of this tracing App depends on its acceptance and uptake among the general population. We measured acceptance for three hypothetical tracing technologies (telecommunication network tracing, a government App, and the Apple and Google Bluetooth exposure notification system) in four nationally representative Taiwanese samples. Using Bayesian methods, we find high acceptance for all three tracking technologies, with acceptance increasing with the inclusion of additional privacy measures. Modelling revealed acceptance increased with the perceived technology benefits, trust in the providers' intent, data security and privacy measures, the level of ongoing control, and one's level of education. Acceptance decreased with data sensitivity perceptions, and...
PLOS ONE, 2021
The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic may require governments to use privacy-encroaching technologi... more The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic may require governments to use privacy-encroaching technologies to help contain its spread. One technology involves co-location tracking through mobile Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth to permit health agencies to monitor people’s contact with each other, thereby triggering targeted social-distancing when a person turns out to be infected. The effectiveness of tracking relies on the willingness of the population to support such privacy encroaching measures. We report the results of two large surveys in the United Kingdom, conducted during the peak of the pandemic, that probe people’s attitudes towards various tracking technologies. The results show that by and large there is widespread acceptance for co-location tracking. Acceptance increases when the measures are explicitly time-limited and come with opt-out clauses or other assurances of privacy. Another possible future technology to control the pandemic involves “immunity passports”, which could be is...
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2020
Even when overt sexism and prejudice become rarer, social norms that perpetuate inequality are re... more Even when overt sexism and prejudice become rarer, social norms that perpetuate inequality are remarkably persistent. The present research lays out one of the subtle ways in which sexist norms may spread through society, by pointing to the role of responses to sexism. We investigate how third parties infer social norms about sexism when observing social interactions. In three studies among male students (Studies 1 and 2) and male and female students (Study 3), we demonstrate that subtle variations in how people respond to a sexist statement can have a substantial influence on inferences third parties make about sexist norms. Specifically, when a sexist statement is made and the conversation continues in a smoothly flowing fashion, third parties infer that this opinion is shared among interaction partners, perceived as appropriate, and that sexism is normative among them. However, when a sexist statement is followed by a brief silence that disrupts the flow of the conversation, obser...
Journal of Social Issues, 2020
An object's creation history plays an important role in how we perceive, value, and interact ... more An object's creation history plays an important role in how we perceive, value, and interact with that object, and has consequences for policy on sustainable consumption. Here, we propose that laypeople in industrialized societies have three dominant concepts of how objects can be created: art, craft, and manufacture. These concepts are differentiated by the perceived properties and environmental sustainability of objects, as well as the perceived capabilities of producers. In three experiments, we examined the consequences of framing an object's creation history as art, craft, or manufacture. In general, art and craft objects were valued more highly than manufactured objects, and this effect was partially mediated by the perceived transfer of positive emotional residue. Mass‐produced goods may be treated as disposable consumables, whereas arts and crafts are more deserving of preservation. That this effect was stronger in Australia than China suggests that these effects may...
PLOS ONE, 2019
Biased transmission of health knowledge has far-reaching effects on information reproduction and ... more Biased transmission of health knowledge has far-reaching effects on information reproduction and health-related cognitions. We examined whether transmissions of different types of disorder and etiological information influence recollections of health knowledge and evaluations of patients, by simulating the digital transmission of information. Transmission chains of four non-interacting persons (i.e., four generations) were formed. The first generation read three vignettes describing fictitious patients with one of three disorders (physiological, psychological, culture-bound) uniquely paired with one of three etiologies (genetic, environmental, unknown etiology). Next, they evaluated patients' well-being, rated desired social distance, and recalled the vignettes. These written recollections replaced the original vignettes for a second-generation of participants, whose recollections were used for the third generation and so on. The framing of disorders affected recollections of etiology, in which culture-bound framings resulted in the poorest recall of etiologies. Participants also perceived the culture-bound disorder as the least serious but desired the most social distance from patients diagnosed with it, when compared to other disorders. The study showed that health information is selectively attended to and reproduced, possibly affected by perceived self-relevance. Faulty recollections and framing of disorders affect health cognitions, potentially instigating biased transmission of disorder-and patient-related narratives.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2017
Approval of hierarchy and inequality in society indexed by social dominance orientation (SDO) ext... more Approval of hierarchy and inequality in society indexed by social dominance orientation (SDO) extends to support for human dominance over the natural world. We tested this negative association between SDO and environmentalism and the validity of the new Short Social Dominance Orientation Scale in two cross-cultural samples of students ( N = 4,163, k = 25) and the general population ( N = 1,237, k = 10). As expected, the higher people were on SDO, the less likely they were to engage in environmental citizenship actions, pro-environmental behaviors and to donate to an environmental organization. Multilevel moderation results showed that the SDO–environmentalism relation was stronger in societies with marked societal inequality, lack of societal development, and environmental standards. The results highlight the interplay between individual psychological orientations and social context, as well as the view of nature subscribed to by those high in SDO.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2015
At the end of the 20th century, a survey of the metatheoretical landscape of culture and psycholo... more At the end of the 20th century, a survey of the metatheoretical landscape of culture and psychology noted an emerging consensus—physicalist ontology, gene–culture co-evolutionary phylogeny, gene–culture interactionist ontogeny, and a mutual constitutionist view of culture and mind. Revisiting the terrain now, the then emerging consensus seems well established, but new challenges appear on the horizon, prompting us to expand our metatheoretical scope. Extending beyond phylogeny, we need to consider a geological timescale, and further naturalizing the culture concept, we need to consider culture and human activity within the planetary system. According to some, we have left the Holocene, and entered into the Anthropocene, a geological epoch in which human activities have such a disproportionate impact that it deserves to be prefaced by humanity. Psychology with interests in culture can play a critical role in human efforts to investigate the psychological processes involved in the cul...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2017
Relational self, along with individual and collective selves, is a fundamental aspect that makes ... more Relational self, along with individual and collective selves, is a fundamental aspect that makes up self-concept. Proposing its two aspects: self-focused relational self (i.e., perceiving the self as the object of other people's referential awareness or intentionality) and other-focused relational self (i.e., perceiving the self as being attuned and empathetically connected to close others), the current study explored the way the four selves affect well-being in Japan and South Korea, the East Asian cultures that have been assumed to be homogeneously collectivistic in previous psychological literature. Japanese and Korean participants rated a set of well-being and self-related scales. There were visible sample differences within culture by collection method (classroom vs. online) in relative degrees of selves and related constructs, possibly associated with generational differences. Other-focused relational self was greater in the Korean classroom sample than the Japanese counterpart, whereas no difference was found between the online samples. On the other hand, it was consistent between cultures that the two types of relational self showed different associations with social anxiety and self-esteem as expected, and that they predicted well-being in different ways. We discuss implications for the generational differences and their interactions with culture and the importance of separating the two aspects of relational self in the study of self and culture.
Nature Climate Change, 2016
Appetite, 2016
Extrinsic information, such as packaging, branding and labeling, can significantly alter our expe... more Extrinsic information, such as packaging, branding and labeling, can significantly alter our experience of food and drink through a process of 'sensation transfer', in which extrinsic attributes are transferred to our sensory perception of a product. The aim of this review was to summarize the literature on sensation transfer for unhealthy food and drink and to investigate personal factors that may influence its occurrence. Seventy-eight studies in 69 articles, published between 1966 and 2014 were identified which evaluated sensation transfer. Sixty-five of the 78 studies found an effect of extrinsic information on taste and/or hedonic outcomes, providing strong evidence for sensation transfer. The majority of studies identified that specific extrinsic information influenced particular products or specific sensory outcomes. Study designs incorporating a measure of expectation allowed a tighter assessment of sensation transfer. The results of such studies confirm the hypothesis that these effects occur when extrinsic information elicits an expectation of product taste, which then forms a framework to guide sensory perception. These studies also support the hypothesis that where sensation transfer does not occur, this is likely due to a mismatch between the expectations elicited by the extrinsic information and the sensory characteristics being measured, or the failure of the extrinsic information to elicit an expectation of taste for that product.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2010
According to recent research, abnormal behavior appears normal to the extent it is understood. Cu... more According to recent research, abnormal behavior appears normal to the extent it is understood. Cultural differences in frameworks for making sense of abnormality suggest there may be variations in this “reasoning fallacy.” In light of evidence that people from Western cultures psychologize abnormality to a greater extent than people from East Asian cultures, the effect of understanding on perceptions of abnormality was predicted to differ across cultures. Results of a cross-cultural questionnaire study indicated that understanding made behavior seem normal to European Australians ( n = 51), consistent with the reasoning fallacy. For Singaporeans ( n = 51), however, understanding did not influence the extent to which behavior was normalized and made abnormal behavior more stigmatizing. Cultural variations in the effect of understanding were attributed to the differential salience of deviance frameworks, which are grounded in culturally specific conceptions of the person.
Infant Behavior and Development, 2003
The aim in this study was to investigate the association between infants' developing interest in ... more The aim in this study was to investigate the association between infants' developing interest in their self-image and the onset of mirror self-recognition (MSR). A longitudinal study was conducted with 98 infants who were seen at intervals of 3 months from 9-24 months of age. At each session, the infants were administered a preferential-looking test whereby they were presented with a video image of themselves alongside a video image of a same-aged peer in two conditions, unmarked and marked. From the 12-month session onwards, the infants were also administered a version of the standard "mark test" of MSR. The infants showed a significant preference for looking at images of themselves in both conditions coincident with the onset of MSR. This result indicates that developing an interest in the self-image is an important component in the development of MSR.
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Papers by Yoshihisa Kashima