Yoshihisa Kashima

Yoshihisa Kashima is Professor of Psychology in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where he has held a faculty position since 2000. He heads the Social Action Laboratory, which investigates cultural dynamics, including the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture through everyday social actions such as language use, storytelling, and interpersonal communication. His research examines how social and cultural processes contribute to sustainability, climate change mitigation, political polarization, and disruptive social change. Kashima's academic background includes a Bachelor's degree from the University of Tokyo, a Bachelor's Degree with Honours from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1986. His career began at the University of Queensland in late 1985, followed by a decade at La Trobe University from 1990 to 1999.

Kashima's influential publications include 'Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study' (2011), 'Fundamental dimensions of social judgment: understanding the relations between judgments of competence and warmth' (2005), 'Culture, gender, and self: a perspective from individualism-collectivism research' (1995), 'Co-benefits of addressing climate change can motivate action around the world' (2016), and 'The psychology of cultural dynamics: What is it, what do we know and what is yet to be known?' with Bain and Perfors (2019, Annual Review of Psychology). He has served as Editor of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology, Associate Editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and President of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. Among his honors are Fellowship in the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2016) and the Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize. In 2025, he was inducted into the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Heritage Wall for pioneering contributions to social and cultural psychology, with research cited over 10,000 times.

Professional Email: ykashima@unimelb.edu.au