One of the core ambitions of cultural psychology is to uncover general principles of human minds and behaviors beyond specific subgroups. To achieve this goal, it is essential to abstract cultures and their dynamics at a mathematical level. Furthermore, cultures manifest in ways that go beyond what traditional surveys and lab experiments can capture, such as in written texts, visual arts, architectural landscapes, archaeological relics, social media, and more. With the aid of cutting-edge computational methods, we can digitize and quantify various cultural manifestations and study them in a more comprehensive, ecologically valid manner. In our lab, we integrate computational approaches, including natural language processing, agent-based modeling, computational vision, and more, in our endeavors to better investigate the variance, origin, evolution, and future prospects of cultures.
Representative Publications:
Other Publications
Brady, W. J., Jackson, J. C., Lindström, B., & Crockett, M. J. (2023). Algorithm-mediated social learning in online social networks. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, S1364661323001663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.008
Jackson, J. C., Lindquist, K. A., Drabble, R., Atkinson, Q., & Watts, J. (2022). Valence-dependent mutation in lexical evolution. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01483-8
Jackson, J. C., Halberstadt, J., Takezawa, M., Liew, K., Smith, K., Apicella, C., & Gray, K. (2023). Generalized morality culturally evolves as an adaptive heuristic in large social networks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000358
Jackson, J. C., Hester, N., & Gray, K. (2018). The faces of God in America: Revealing religious diversity across people and politics. PLOS ONE, 13(6), e0198745. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198745