Understanding the “Fundamental Sociality of the Human Mind”

The human species is equipped with a hyper-sensitive sociality, meaning that people are never indifferent to the welfare and states of other people around them, in both positive (e.g., empathy, altruism) and negative (e.g., jealousy, prejudice, discrimination) ways. The ultimate goal of our laboratory is to understand the evolutionary and socio-ecological bases of such hyper-sociality and to clarify how various uniquely human faculties are implemented in our minds as adaptive behavioral-cognitive systems. Through collaborations with researchers in adjacent disciplines including neuroscience, economics, evolutionary biology, informatics, jurisprudence and ethics, we hope to synthesize the normative wisdom accumulated in the humanities and social sciences addressing “how we should behave and construct our society” to the empirical knowledge obtained from behavioral, cognitive and neurosciences.

What’s New?

2024.1.3
A new paper about relations between social network and collective intelligence (Naito, A., Masuda, N., & Kameda, T. “Collective intelligence under a volatile task environment: A behavioral experiment using social networks and computer simulations”) has been published in Interdisciplinary Information Sciences. Link
2023.12.16 & 17
We held Asian Advanced Workshop on Social Decision Making and Collective Intelligence - 2023 in Tokyo. Program Photo
2023.10.10
Ryutaro Mori won the best presentation award (short speech category) in the 69th Annual Conference of the Japanese Group Dynamics Association.
2023.9.10
A new paper about collective intelligence (Kuroda, K., Takahashi, M., & Kameda, T. "Majority rule can help solve difficult tasks even when confident members opt out to serve individual interests") has been published in Scientific Reports. Link
2023.4.6
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda presented a lecture at Istituto di Cultura Tokyo, "Exploring the Depths of the Viewer's Mind in Caravaggio's Paintings: Experimental Art History and Neuroscience".
2023.4.1
Kiri Kuroda (JSPS Fellow, Overseas Research Fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Human Development) and Aoi Naito (JSPS Fellow, PD, Tokyo Institute of Technology, School of Environment and Society) have received their doctoral degrees and moved to new laboratories on April 1. We wish them the best of luck in their new locations.
2023.3.29
Hidezo Suganuma received the young researchers' award from the Japanese Society of Social Psychology.
2023.2.9
A new paper about neural basis of social influence by Dr. Akitoshi Ogawa, Prof. Tatsuya Kameda and colleagues (Ogawa, A., Kameda, T., & Nakatani, H. "Neural Basis of Social Influence of Observing Other's Perception in Dot Number Estimation.") has been published in Neuroscience. Link
2023.2.3
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda gave a lecture at Institute Jean Nicod, CNRS (Paris, France).
2022.12.15
A new paper about emergence of norms has been published in Communications Biology (Kuroda, K., Ogura, Y., Ogawa, A., Tamei, T., Ikeda, K., & Kameda, T. “Behavioral and neuro-cognitive bases for emergence of norms and socially shared realities via dynamic interaction”). Link
2022. 12. 11
In the 15th Annual Conference of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society Japan, Dr. Hye-rin Kim won the best young oral presentation award. Link
2022. 10. 27
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda gave an invited talk at DMfO (Decision Making for Others) workshop (University of Portsmouth, UK). Link
2022.10.20
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda gave a keynote lecture at ACM Collective Intelligence 2022 (Online: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany). Link
2022.10.1
Dr. Hye-rin Kim and Dr. Yukiko Ogura were selected as PRESTO Researchers. Link
2022.9.14
Mr. Kodani Yuki, Prof. Tatsuya Kameda and the colleagues were awareded the Outstanding Paper Award in 2022 by the Japanese Society of Social Psychology (Kodani, Y., Saito, Y., Kim, H., Ogawa, A., Ueshima, A., & Kameda, T. 2021. Distributive justice and risky decisions: A study with utility models and pupillary responses.)
2022.5.16
A new paper on social learning has been published in Scientific Reports (Naito, A., Katahira, K., & Kameda, T. 2022. Insights about the common generative rule underlying an information foraging task can be facilitated via collective search). Link
2022.4.25
A new review paper on collective intelligence has been published in Nature Reviews Psychology (Kameda, Toyokawa & Tindale. 2022 "Information aggregation and collective intelligence beyond the wisdom of crowds".) Link (publisher), Link (readable pdf)
2022.4.1
Dr. Ryota Takano has joined our laboratory as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow.
New members joined our laboratory.
2022.3.31
Mayu Takahashi and Ryutaro Mori received the young researchers' award from the Japanese Society of Social Psychology.
2022.1.21
In the 85th Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association, Aoi Naito won the best presentation award, and Mayu Takahashi and Kiri Kuroda won the presentation awards.Link
2021.4.5
Students at Nada High/Junior High School visited our laboratory online. They had a discussion with Prof. Tatsuya Kameda about the ongoing research in our lab for more than two hours.
2021.4.1
New members joined our laboratory.
2021.3.17
A new paper which analyzed the function of the maximin principle in distribution behavior with high temporal resolution, has been published in Royal Society Open Science(Ueshima, A., & Kameda, T. 2021 ”Reducing variance or helping the poorest? A mouse tracking approach to investigate cognitive bases of inequality aversion in resource allocation”.).Link
This article was featured by the Academic Times.Link
2021.3.3
A new paper on distributive justice and decision making under risk has been accepted by Japanese Journal of Social Psychology (Kodani, Y., Saito, Y., Kim, H., Ogawa, A., Ueshima, A., & Kameda, T. (2021). Distributive justice and risky decisions: A study with utility models and pupillary responses. Japanese Journal of Social Psychology, in press).
2020.11.24
A new paper on the robust function of the maximin principle in social distribution has been published in the electronic edition of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology(Ueshima, Mercier & Kameda, 2020 "Social deliberation systematically shifts resource allocation decisions by focusing on the fate of the least well-off").Link
2020.10.12
Professor Tatsuya Kameda and his colleagues were awarded the 3rd Association of Behavioral Economics and Finance Best Paper Award sponsored by Financial Services Group, Commerce Company, Yahoo Japan Corporation Link
2020.4.15
A new paper on trust decisions has been accepted by Japanese Psychological Research and published online (Kuroda, K., Kamijo, Y., Kameda, T. in press. Investor’s pessimistic and false belief about trustworthiness and stake size in trust decision). Link
2020.4.1
A new paper on social-facilitation phenomenon about human food-consumption has been published in Royal Society Open Science (Ogura, Y., Masamoto, T., & Kameda, T. 2020. Mere presence of co-eater automatically shifts foraging tactics toward ‘Fast and Easy’ food in humans). Link
2020.4.1
New members joined our labratory.
2020.3.31
Dr. Yukiko Murata has finished her appointment as a project assistant professor at Department of Social Psychology. From April, she will be a project researcher at Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo.
2020.1.16
A new paper on sharing of pain within a pair has been published in Scientific Reports (Murata, A., Nishida, H., Watanabe, K. & Kameda, T. 2020. Convergence of physiological responses to pain during face-to-face interaction). Link
2019.12.21-23
A joint workshop of The University of Tokyo and the National Taiwan University on experimental social sciences was held on Saturday, Dec. 21, to Monday, Dec. 23. Link
2019.11.5
A new paper on neural basis for inference about other's intention in strategic interaction has been published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Ogawa, A., & Kameda, T. 2019. Dissociable roles of left and right temporoparietal junction in strategic competitive interaction). Link
2019.8.1
Dr. Hye-rin Kim joined our laboratory as a project assistant professor of CREST (An exploration of the principle of emerging interactions in spatiotemporal diversity).
2019.7.5
A new paper on vasopressin and preemptive strike has been published in Scientific Reports (Kawada, A., et al. 2019 Vasopressin enhances human preemptive strike in both males and females). Link
2019.6.3
A new paper on human coordination under uncertainty has been accepted by Evolution and Human Behavior and published online (Kuroda, K., & Kameda, T. 2019 You watch my back, I'll watch yours: Emergence of collective risk monitoring through tacit coordination in human social foraging). Link
2019.5.14
Yoshimatsu Saito received Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo.
2019.4.1
New members joined our laboratory.
2019.4.1
A new paper on charitable giving has been published in Social Neuroscience (Saito, Y., Ueshima, A., Tanida, S., & Kameda, T. 2019. How does social information affect charitable giving?: Empathic concern promotes support for underdog recipient).Link
2018.12.27
A new paper on plasticity of cooperative behavior has been published in Evolution and Human Behavior (Kim, H., Toyokawa, W., & Kameda, T. 2019 How do we decide when (not) to free-ride? Risk tolerance predicts behavioral plasticity in cooperation).Link
2018.10.30
A new paper on ecological validity of impulsive choice has been published in Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Ogura, Y., Amita, H., & Matsushima, T. 2018 Ecological validity of impulsive choice: Consequences of profitability-based short-sighted evaluation in the producer-scrounger resource competition).Link
2018.9.9-13
Dr. Guy Theraulaz (Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, CNRS) visited our laboratory for collaboration. Dr. Theraulaz gave us a colloquium talk entitled "Deciphering individuals' interactions involved in the coordination of three-dimensional nest construction in ant colonies".Link
2018.8.30
A new paper on overconfidence has been published in PLOS ONE (Muthukrishna, M., Henrich, J., Toyokawa, W., Hamamura, T., Kameda, T., & Heine, S. 2018 Overconfidence is universal? Elicitation of genuine overconfidence (EGO) procedure reveals systematic differences across domain, task knowledge, and incentives in four populations).Link
2018.8.27
A new paper on neurocognitive underpinnings of risky decisions for others has been published in Scientific Reports (Ogawa, A., Ueshima, A., Inukai, K., & Kameda, T. 2018 Deciding for others as a neutral party recruits risk-neutral perspective-taking: Model-based behavioral and fMRI experiments).Link
2018.7.25
A new paper on cultural comparison of perception of laughter has been published in Psychological Science (Bryant, G.A., Fessler, D.M.T., …Kameda, T., Kuroda, K., ..., & Zhou, Y. 2018 The perception of spontaneous and volitional laughter across 21 societies).Link
2018.4.1
New graduate and undergraduate students joined our laboratory.
2018.4.1
Dr. Hye-rin Kim joined our laboratory as a project researcher of CREST (An exploration of the principle of emerging interactions in spatiotemporal diversity).
2018.4.1
Dr. Yukiko Ogura joined our laboratory as an assistant professor.
2018.3.31
Hye-rin Kim received Ph.D. from Hokkaido University.
2018.3.30
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda gave an invited talk at the 22nd Conference of Japan Association for Evolutionary Economics. Link
2018.3.20
Hye-rin Kim was awarded the Ohtsuka Prize by Hokkaido University.
2018.3.5
A kick-off symposium for CREST (An exploration of the principle of emerging interactions in spatiotemporal diversity: PI Prof. Ichiro Tsuda, 2017 – 2023) was held on March 5th. Link (Japanese event page)
2018.2.19
A kick-off symposium for Utokyo Center for Integrative Science of Human Behavior (CisHuB: Link) was held on February 19th.
2018.2.16
A seminar by Prof. Naoko Nishimura (Shinshu University) was held on February 16th. Link (Japanese event page)
2018.2.14
A seminar by Dr. Makoto Miyakoshi (University of California San Diego) was held on February 14th. Link (Japanese event page)
2018.1.31
A seminar by Dr. Tobias Kordsmeyer (University of Goettingen) was held on January 31st. Link (Japanese event page)
2018.1.10
Prof. Tatsuya Kameda gave an invited talk at the 18th Winter Workshop of “Mechanism of Brain and Mind."Link
2017.11.9
A new paper on collective intelligence has been published as an early edition in PNAS (Jayles, Kim, Escobedo, Cezera, Blanchet, Kameda, Sire, & Theraulaz “How social information can improve estimation accuracy in human groups”). Link
2017.10.1
“An exploration of the principle of emerging interactions in spatiotemporal diversity” (Research Director: Ichiro Tsuda; 2017.9–2023.3) has been adopted in CREST (Symbiotic Interaction). Prof. Tatsuya Kameda is in charge of research on intergroup interactions as a collaborator. Link
2017.7.3
A seminar by Prof. Toshiya Matsushima (Hokkaido University) was held on July 3rd. Photos of the seminar have been posted here (the Japanese event page).
2017.6.25
A new paper on group decision-making has been published as OnlineFirst in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.
2017.5.22
Luc-Alain Giraldeau et al. (Eds.), Investors and Exploiters in Ecology and Economics: Principles and Applications (MIT Press) has been published. Link
2017.5.22
A new paper on decision-making under uncertainty has been accepted by the Japanese Psychological Research.
2017.4.29
Yukiko Ogura's new paper has been accepted by Behavioural Processes.
2017.4.1
New graduate and undergraduate students joined our laboratory.
2017.4.1
Dr. Yukiko Ogura joined our laboratory as a postdoctoral research fellow.
2017.1.23
A seminar by Dr. Yukiko Ogura (Hokkaido University) was held on January 23rd. Photos of the seminar have been posted here (the Japanese event page).
2016.11.11
A new paper on social learning by Wataru Toyokawa and others has been accepted by Evolution and Human Behavior (Toyokawa, Saito & Kameda “Individual differences in learning behaviours in humans: Asocial exploration tendency does not predict reliance on social learning").
2016.9.29
A new paper on distributive justice has been published as an early edition in PNAS (Kameda, Inukai, Higuchi, Ogawa, Kim, Matsuda & Sakagami “Rawlsian Maxmin Rule Operates As a Common Cognitive Anchor in Distributive Justice and Risky Decisions”). Link
2016.6.27
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) “Understanding cognitive, neural and ecological bases of human collective behavior” has been awarded to Tatsuya Kameda as a Principal Investigator.
2016.4.26
A new paper on affiliation and co-laughter has been published in PNAS (Bryant et al. 2016. “Detecting affiliation in co-laughter across 24 societies”). Link
2016.4.1
A new paper on facial mimicry by Aiko Murata and others has been accepted by PLOS ONE (Murata, Saito, Schug, Ogawa & Kameda “Spontaneous Facial Mimicry Is Enhanced by the Goal of Inferring Emotional States: Evidence for Moderation of “Automatic” Mimicry by Higher Cognitive Processes”). Link
2016.4.1
New graduate and undergraduate students joined our laboratory.
2016.4.1
Aiko Murata has received Ph.D. from Hokkaido University. She has joined Katsumi Watanabe Laboratory at School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, as a postdoctoral fellow.
2015.9.1
Dr. Akitoshi Ogawa has become an assistant professor at Department of Neurophysiology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine.
2015.7.24
Prof. Alessandro Angrilli at the University of Padova gave us a seminar entitled "Psychobiology of empathy and emotions: new approaches and tools" at 1:00 - 4:00 pm on Friday, July 24th. Some photos from the seminar have been posted in the Japanese Event Page.
2015.5.30
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (edited by Robert A. Scott and Stephen M. Kosslyn, Wiley, 2015) is just out. Tatsuya Kameda contributed an essay to this volume.
2015.5.15
A new paper on empathy by Aiko Murata, Yoshimatsu Saito and others has been accepted by the Japanese Psychological Review.
2015.4.13
Wataru Toyokawa has received Ph.D. from Hokkaido University. He has joined Kevin Laland Laboratory at School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher.
2015.4.10
New graduate and undergraduate students joined our laboratory.
2015.3.20
Akitoshi Ogawa’s new paper has been accepted by Cognitive Studies.
2015.2.20-22
The 1st Neuroeconomics Workshop was held February 20th through 22nd in Kanagawa, Japan. Twenty Japanese top young researchers in the field of neuroeconomics presented and discussed their ongoing research in this 3-day invitation-only workshop.
2015.2.5
Akitoshi Ogawa's new paper has been accepted by Human Brain Mapping.
2015.1.20
A new book entitled "How 'rules of society' are ruled: Experimental research on social norms" (Frontiers in experimental social sciences, Vol.6. edited by Tatsuya Kameda) came out from Keiso-shobo in Tokyo. Wataru Toyokawa and Hye-rin Kim (doctoral students) contributed their chapters in this volume.
2015.1.1
Tatsuya Kameda was appointed as a Consulting Editor for Psychological Review.
2014.12.25
Our laboratory homepage was opened.
2014.12.14
Izumi Hirayama (undergraduate; fourth year) was awarded the Young Poster Award at the 18th Annual Conference of Experimental Social Sciences.
2014.11.30
Aiko Murata (doctoral student) was awarded the Young Investigator Award at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society of Japan.
2014.10.01
A new research project titled “Exploring Cognitive and Neural Foundations of Normative and Ethical Judgments about Social Values” (The Topic-Setting Program to Advance Cutting-Edge Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, PI: Tatsuya Kameda, 2014 through 2017) was started.
2014.10.01
Tatsuya Kameda was appointed as a council member of the Science Council of Japan.
2014.10.01
Tatsuya Kameda moved to the University of Tokyo from Hokkaido University and opened the laboratory.