Projects
- Origins of Prejudice and Social Division Intergroup Relations
Political Psychology
- How We Know “Right” and “Wrong” Moral Psychology
Psychology and Law
- Mutuality of Mind and Culture Cultural Psychology
Communication and Culture
What’s New
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The joint research project with Professors Yoko Sugitani and Taku Togawa (Faculty of Economics, Sophia University) has received a Yoshida Hideo Memorial Research Award.
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Professor Karasawa will serve as the President-Elect of the Asian Association of Social Psychology for the years of 2021-2023 and as the President for 2023-2025
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Now available online: Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
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Now available on line: Japanese Journal of Psychology
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Awards 2020
About Us
In general terms, the members of our lab conduct research in a field known as social cognition.
Social cognition is a subfield of social psychology, which is concerned mainly with how people make sense of their social worlds - consisting of other people around them as well as the groups and communities to which they belong.
Research Gallery
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Japanese National Identity
Karasawa, Tsukamoto, & Ryu (2020). Can patriotism be distinguished from nationalism? Empirical evidence concerning Japanese national identity and Its ideological significance. Poster presented at SPSP Annual Conference (New Orleans, LA, USA)
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Stereotype and Language
Iori KASAHARA (Ph.D. Student) presented at SPSP 2020 (New Orleans, LA, USA).
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Wice, Karasawa, Matsui, & Miller (2020)
Knowing minds: Culture and perceptions of mental state access. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 319-327.
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Matsuo, Sasahara, Taguchi, & Karasawa (2019)
Development and validation of the Japanese Moral Foundations Dictionary. PLOS ONE, 14(3): e0213343
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Talk at TEDxNagoyaU
Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Social Divisiveness
(in Japanese)
Global Research Network

Collaborations with researchers in north-america
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Perceived warmth of offending group moderates the effect of intergroup apologies
Awale, A., Chan, C., Tam, K., & Karasawa, M. (in press). Perceived warmth of offending group moderates the effect of intergroup apologies.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220961844Using actual and fictional scenarios, we examined whether the apology–forgiveness relationship and the apology–remorse relationship were dependent on the victim group members’ perceived warmth of the offending group. -
Materialist and post-materialist concerns and the wish for a strong leader in 27 countries
Lima, M. E. O., de França, D. X., Jetten, J., Pereira, C. R., Ariyanto, A., Autin, F., Ayub, N., Badea, C., Tomasz Besta, T., Butera, F., Costa-Lopes, R., Fantini, C., Finchilescu, G., Gaertner, L., Gollwitzer, M., Ángel Gómez, Á, González, R., Hong, Y-y., Jensen, D. H., Karasawa, M., Kessler, T., Klein, O., Jasinskaja-Lathi, I., Megevand, L., Morton, T., Paladino, P., Polya, T., Renvik, T. A., Ruza, A., Shahrazad, W., Shama, S., Smith, H. J., Torres, A. R., van der Bles, A. M., & Wohl, M. J. A. (2021). Materialist and post-materialist concerns and the wish for a strong leader in 27 countries. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(1), 207-220. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.6213We explore whether objective higher levels of democracy are differentially associated with materialist and post-materialist concerns and, in turn, whether this is related to the wish for a strong leader. Testing this hypothesis across 27 countries (n = 5,741), we demonstrated a direct negative effect of democracies’ development on the wish for a strong leader. Further, multi-level mediation analysis showed that the relation between the Democracy Index and the wish for a strong leader was mediated by materialist concerns. -
Knowing minds: Culture and perceptions of mental state access
Wice, M., Karasawa, M., Matui, T., & Miller J. G. (2020).
Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 319-327. DOI:10.1111/ajsp.12404How does culture influence the ways in which individuals reflect upon their knowledge of others’ mental states? We addressed this question in a two-study cross-cultural investigation examining perceptions of mental state access in the U.S. and Japan. -
Brown, C. M., Goto, N., Tsukamoto, S., & Karasawa, M. (2020). Understanding collective guilt: Tolerance for contradiction and state-trait dissociations in perceived overlap between ingroup members.
Current Psychology (published on line, March 11). DOI: 1007/s12144-020-00684-6 -
Explaining illness with evil: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism.
Bastian, B., Vauclair, M., Loughnan, S., Bain, P., … Karasawa, M., et al. (2019). Explaining illness with evil: Pathogen prevalence fosters moral vitalism.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. -
Verbal display rule knowledge: A cultural and developmental perspective.
Wice, M., Matsui, T., Tsudaka, G., Karasawa, M., & Miller, J. G. (2019). Verbal display rule knowledge: A cultural and developmental perspective.
Cognitive Development, 52 (in print; published online, June 25). DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.100801. -
How can I become a member of my culture?: Shared representations of community-related moral violation in Japan and the U.S.
Matsuo, A., Brown, C. M., Norasakkunkit, V., & Karasawa, M. (2019). How can I become a member of my culture?: Shared representations of community-related moral violation in Japan and the U.S.
Culture and Brain. DOI: 10.1007/s40167-019-00084-z -
“Our country needs a strong leader right now”: Economic inequality enhances the wish for a strong leader.
Sprong, S., Jetten, J., Wang, Z., Peters, K., Mols, F., Verkuyten, M., Bastian, B., … Karasawa, M., et al., (2019). “Our country needs a strong leader right now”: Economic inequality enhances the wish for a strong leader.
Psychological Science, 30, 1-13. DOI: 10.1177/0956797619875472 -
Regaining in-group continuity in times of anxiety about the group’s future: A study on the role of collective nostalgia across 27 countries.
Smeeks, A., Jetten, J., Verkuyten, M., Wohl, M. J. A., Jasinskaya-Lahti, I., …, Karasawa, M. et al. (2018). Regaining in-group continuity in times of anxiety about the group’s future: A study on the role of collective nostalgia across 27 countries.
Social Psychology. (Published online, October 9). DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000350 -
Cultural values moderate the impact of relative deprivation.
Smith, H. J. , Ryan, D. A., Jaurique, A., Pettigrew, T. F., Jetten, J., …. Karasawa, M., et al. (2018). Cultural values moderate the impact of relative deprivation.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49, 1183-1218. DOI: 10.1177/0022022118784213 -
Revisiting the measurement of anomie.
Teymoori A, Jetten J, Bastian B, Ariyanto A, Autin F, Ayub N, et al. (2016) Revisiting the measurement of anomie.
PLOS ONE, 11(7): e0158370. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158370 -
Psychological essentialism and nationalism as determinants of interethnic bias.
Tsukamoto, S., Enright, J., & Karasawa, M. (2013). Psychological essentialism and nationalism as determinants of interethnic bias.
Journal of Social Psychology,153 (5), 515-519. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2013.795926. -
Challenging Canadian multiculturalism: Lay perceptions of Canadian national identity.
Tsukamoto, S., Gonzales, V., & Karasawa, M. (2010). Challenging Canadian multiculturalism: Lay perceptions of Canadian national identity.
Journal of Human Environmental Studies, 8(1), 25-31. -
Category size and judgment of variability: The effects of seeing the trees in the forest.
Karasawa, M., & Brewer, M. B. (1996). Category size and judgment of variability: The effects of seeing the trees in the forest.
Japanese Psychological Research, 38, 213-223.