Social Action Laboratory

Social Action Laboratory is concerned with the antecedents and consequences of meaningful human social action. As we engage in meaningful everyday activities, we are influenced by our social and cultural landscape, while simultaneously participating in its construction. Our focal point of interest is cultural dynamics, namely, the stability and change of culture over time, and how our everyday activities (e.g., language use, storytelling, interpersonal interactions) contribute to the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture. The current research focus is on culture and sustainability broadly conceived. So we’re interested in how culture intersects with sustainable lifestyles, and how we can transform our own cultures so that we can meet our needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs. We conduct theoretical and empirical investigations about how social and cultural processes can be harnessed for sustainable living and co-existence of humanity with the rest of nature.

Lab Members

Professor Yoshihisa Kashima
Head of Lab

ykashima@unimelb.edu.au

View Publications
Dr Ilona McNeill
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

ilona.mcneill@unimelb.edu.au

View Publications
Rebekah Anderson
PhD Student

rebekah.c.anderson@gmail.com
Stephanie Rizio
PhD Student

rizios@student.unimelb.edu.au
Alicia Antoniadis
PhD Student

licie@bigpond.net.au
Elle Pattenden
PhD Student

elle.pattenden@unimelb.edu.au

Lab Alumni

Dr Julian Fernando
Deakin University
Dr Yang Li
Nagoya University

Main Research Publications (since 2014)

Cultural Dynamics
Kashima, Y. (2014). Meaning, grounding, and the construction of social reality. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 17, 81-95. (invited contribution).

Lee, T., Gelfand, M., & Kashima, Y. (2014). The serial reproduction of conflict: Third parties escalate conflict through communication biases. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54, 68-72.

Stivala, A., Robins, G., Kashima, Y., & Kirley, M. (2014). Ultrametric distribution of culture vectors in an extended Axelrod model of cultural dissemination. Scientific Report, 4, 4870. DOI: 10.1038/srep04870

Kashima, Y. (2014). How can you capture cultural dynamics? Frontiers in Psychology DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00995

Kashima, E. S., Kent, S., & Kashima, Y. (2015). Life satisfaction in the new country: A multilevel longitudinal analysis of effects of culture and 5-HTT allele frequency distribution in country of origin. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(1), 50-54. DOI:10.1093/scan/nsu036

Kashima, Y., Laham, S. M., Dix, J., Levis, B., Wong, D., & Wheeler, M. (2015). Social transmission of cultural practices and implicit attitudes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 127, 113-125. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.05.005

Peters, K. & Kashima, Y. (2015). A multi-modal theory of affect diffusion. Psychological Bulletin, 141 (5), 966-992. DOI: 10.1037/bul0000020

Kashima, Y. (2016). Culture and psychology in the 21st century: Conceptions of culture and person for psychology revisited. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47 (1), 4-20. [Invited contribution with commentaries]

Stivala, A., Robins, G., Kashima, Y., & Kirley, M. (2016). Diversity and community can coexist. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57, 243-254.

Skaczkowski, G., Durkin, S., Kashima, Y., & Wakefield, M. (2016). The effect of packaging, branding and labeling on the experience of unhealthy food and drink: A review. Appetite, 99, 219-234.

Brennan, E., Durkin, S. J., Wakefield, M. A., & Kashima, Y. (2016). Talking about antismoking campaigns: What do smokers talk about, and how does talk influence campaign effectiveness? Journal of Health Communication, 21 (1), 33-45. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1039675

Stivala, A., Kashima, Y., & Kirley, M. (2016). Culture and cooperation in a spatial public goods game. Physical Review E, 94, 032303.

Brennan, E., Durkin, S. J., Wakefield, M., & Kashima, Y. (2016). Why do smokers talk about antismoking campaigns? Predictors of the occurrence and content of campaign-generated conversations. Health Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2016.1239301

Miller, T., Pfau, J., Sonenberg, L., & Kashima, Y. (2017). Logics of common ground. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 58, 859-904.

Milfont, T. L., Bain, P. G., Kashima, Y., Corral-Verdugo, V., Pasquali, C., Johansson, L. O., ... & Bilewicz, M. (2017). On the Relation Between Social Dominance Orientation and Environmentalism: A 25-Nation Study. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550617722832.

Skaczkowski, G., Durkin, S., Kashima, Y., & Wakefield, M. (2017). Influence of premium versus value brand names on the smoking experience in a plain packaging environment: an experimental study. BMJ Open, 7(1), e014099.

Fernando, J. W., Burden, N., Ferguson, A., O’Brien, L. V., Judge, M., & Kashima, Y. (2018). Functions of utopia: How utopian thinking motivates societal engagement. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(5) 779–792.

Kashima, Y., Bain, P., & Perfors, A. (2019). The psychology of cultural dynamics: What is it, what is known, and what is yet to be known? Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 499-529. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418- 103112

Shank, D. B., Kashima, Y., Peters, K., Li, Y., Robins, G., & Kirley, M. (2019). Norm talk and human cooperation: Can we talk ourselves into cooperation? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000163 (accepted 16/08/2018)

Sustainability and Environmental Psychology
Kashima, Y., Paladino, A., & Margetts, E. A. (2014). Environmentalist identity and environmental striving. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 38, 64-75.

Fernando, J. W., Kashima, Y., & Laham, S. M. (2014). Multiple emotions: A person-centred approach to the relationship between intergroup emotion and action orientation. Emotion, 14, 722-732. DOI: 10.1037/a003103

Guy, S., Kashima, Y., Walker, I., & O’Neill, S. (2014). Investigating the effects of knowledge and ideology on climate change beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 421-429.

Rickard, L., Wiseman, J., & Kashima, Y. (2014). Barriers to effective mitigation actions on climate change: the case of senior government and business decision-makers. WIREs Climate Change. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.305

Bain, P., Milfont, T., Kashima, Y., Bilewicz, M., Doron, G., Garðarsdóttir, R. B., Gouveia, V. V., Guan, Y., Johansson, L.-O., Pasquali, C., Verdugo, V.-C., Aragones, J. I., Utsugi, A., Demarque, C., Otto, S., Park, J., Soland, M., Steg, L., González, R., Lebedeva, N., Madsen, O. J., Wagner, C., Akotia, C. S., Kurz, T., Saiz, J. L., Schultz, P. W., Einarsdóttir, G., & Saviolidis, N. M. (2016). How the co-benefits of addressing climate change can motivate action across the world. Nature Climate Change, 6(2), 154-157. DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2814

Connor, P., Harris, E., Guy, S., Fernando, J., Burton-Shank, D., Kurz, T., Bain, P., & Kashima, Y. (2016). Interpersonal communication about climate change: How messages change when communicated through simulated online social networks. Climatic Change, 136(3-4), 463-476. DOI 10.1007/s10584-016-1643-z

Margetts, E., & Kashima, Y. (2017). Spillover between pro-environmental behaviours: the role of resources and perceived similarity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 49, 30-42.

Meis, J. & Kashima, Y. (2017). Signage as a tool for behavioral change: Direct and indirect routes to understanding the meaning of a sign. PLoS ONE, 12(8): e0182975.

Kusumi, T., Hirayama, R., & Kashima, Y. (2017). Risk perception and risk talk: The case of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear radiation risk. Risk Analysis, 37(12), 2305-2320.

O’Brien, L., Meis, J., Anderson, R. C., Rizio, S. M., Abrose, M., Bruce, G., Critchley, C. R., Dudgeon, P., Newton, P., Robins, G., & Kashima, Y. (2018). Low Carbon Readiness Index: A short measure to predict private low carbon behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 57, 34-44.

Breadsell, J., Eon, C., Morrison, G., & Kashima, Y. (2019). Interlocking practices and their influence in the home. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. (accepted 17/12/2018)

Tran, P., Judge, M., & Kashima, Y. (accepted). Commitment in Relationships: An Updated Meta-Analysis of the Investment Model. Personal Relationships. (accepted 08/01/2019)