One of the main objectives of Takai laboratory is to examine how people perceive self and others depending on contexts and relationships. Multidisciplinary approaches to the theme compose a large portion of research interest in the lab.

　To challenge this gigantic theme has been divided into several sub-themes. All themes share the same concept and idea of questioning “general theories” to develop some original theories. Empirical research methods are taken to provide new and unique evidence based theories.

　One of the most unique features of the lab could be its area of specialityー cultural psychology. As a cultural psychology lab, we try to avoid omitting “imported” theories, but try to develop or rearrange theories that fit to the society. For instance, Self-monitoring Scales developed in the western society are frequently adopted in Japanese psychological researches. However, these scales tend to assess the ability to assert/appeal one’s self, whereas these abilities might not be considered as positive characteristics in Japan.

　As a saying “the nail that sticks up will be hammered down” well depicts the characteristics of Japanese society. Most Japanese might prefer to act quietly, rather than trying to attract attention, whereas obtaining attention from others might be considered as a triggering factor of interpersonal relationship in the western society. Cross-cultural equivalence beyond these differences is heavily considered when we construct new theories. Wide spread of western scientific findings have contributed to the world, but time has come to add more essence of cultural differences in order to develop a truly international society. Based on these perspectives, there are several on-going research projects to provide better understandings in self/other cognition.

　Cultural diversity could be experienced in Japan too. For instance, evaluation of a dialect speaker could well reflect the influence of cultural differences. How a dialect affects the probability of being accepted to a job when an applicant speaks his/her dialect during a job interview… (provided that the applicant had fulfilled all the requirement other than the language)? How about a case where a person from Tokyo speaks the standard Japanese during a job interview? Why are there so many comedians from Kansai region in Japan? Possible answers for these simple questions could be found in social psychology or communication science researches.

　The effects of language styles is just an example of the relationship between language and human, how “language” could represent “culture”, and how cultures could influence our ways of living.

　Research projects in Takai laboratory avoid to simply import (or ban) western theories. We try to examine theories from cross cultural perspectives and reflect cross cultural equivalence to a theory by considering the characteristics of Japanese society.