The Construction and Selection of the Environments That Enrich Kokoro and Empathy

2018 Research Projects

Research Topic

Lead Researcher

Yoshiyuki Ueda, Senior Lecturer, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

Center Co-Researchers

Sakiko Yoshikawa, Professor, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

Kazusa Minemoto, Academic Affairs Staff, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

To maintain and support our sense of kokoro, it is important to be in environments that enrich our kokoro. To achieve this, it is necessary to understand our current environments and choose those that enrich our kokoro. Because humans are animals that build social groups, we need to consider our relationships with others when evaluating environments. Which environments make us comfortable? What are the benefits of putting ourselves in such environments? Previous research concerning interpersonal cognition has mostly beenconducted in one-on-one observer observee settings that evaluate the reading of information. However, having multiple people interact with each other is a more realistic approximation of real-life situations. By understanding the circumstances of a given group of people, you can better judge whether or not a given environment enriches kokoro, which helps in making decisions about environmental conditions.
This project investigates 1) the impact that positive and negative emotions have on decision-making regarding the environment, 2) our selection tendencies towards people, things and the environment and 3) establishes the neurological bases for the selection of people, things and environment. In the short term, the project will examine the “Construction and Selection of Environments that Enrich our Kokoro and Empathy”. In the mid to long term, the project will examine adults, children and elderly people with autism to study how they recognize and select interpersonal environments. Further, it will investigate how grouping is recognized among people on the autism spectrum. Based on data collected from this phase, in the mid to long term, this study will measure how comfortable environments are using physiological indices.

2018/11/06