Community multiplexity and task switching

The Centre for Transformative Innovation and Swinburne Law School invites you to a research seminar presentation by Dr Tasuku Igarashi

Synopsis

Belonging to multiple communities is an important characteristic of
modernized humans. Yet no substantial evidence has been found on
underlying psychological mechanisms of humans to adjust oneself to a
variety of rules and norms embedded in different social groups. We
hypothesize that task-switching abilities, or cognitive flexibility to
shift from one to another rule by switching back and forth between
different tasks, play a pivotal role in socializing in diverse social
groups. A laboratory experiment revealed that task-switching abilities
increase the number of SNS groups to which individuals belong. The
findings imply the importance of cognitive flexibility in rule
shifting for the better understanding of others in
intergroup/intercultural contexts.

Presenter Bio

Tasuku Igarashi is an associate professor of social psychology at
Nagoya University, Japan. He has pursued his concentrated interests in
the dynamic interactive process of individuals and social networks,
the mechanisms of learning social network structure, and the community
multiplexity in human society and its psychological foundations. He is
currently visiting the University of Melbourne as an honorary research
fellow funded by Fostering Joint International Research Program of
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.