About Hiro
Hiro is a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. He completed his BA at Sophia University in Japan and MSc (by research) and PhD at University of Kent in the UK. After finishing his PhD, he worked at Kochi University of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow.
His academic interests lie in social and evolutionary psychology and he is interested in understanding how reputation shapes human sociality. He has been undertaking a wide range of projects and he addresses questions such as how indirect reciprocity guides (intergroup) cooperation, why people gossip and how it facilitates prosociality, and how we can promote intergenerational and post-disaster cooperation.
He likes talking and doing nonsense with his friends and he also enjoys playing jazz. When he was younger, he traveled abroad by himself with his trumpet and hit local jam sessions in many countries. He currently plays for the Runnymede Jazz Orchestra and a regular participant of the Woods Shed Jazz Club.
Doing research with Hiro
Hiro is actively seeking undergraduate/postgraduate students to join his lab. If you are a current undergraduate/MSc student at Royal Holloway and interested in doing research with him, please contact him via email (Hirotaka.Imada[at]rhul.ac.uk). You can join him as a volunteer research assistant or apply to a research assistant bursary. He can offer you a range of research experiences (e.g., doing literature review, conducting experiments, designing experiments, writing a paper, etc.)
If you are interested in pursuing a PhD with him, please contact him via email to express your interest with your research idea and financial plans. Please visit this page to figure out available PhD funding opportunities. Usually, deadlines for PhD funding applications are around December-January and if you are interested, you’d like to contact him as soon as possible to discuss your project/grant acquisition.
Hiro is particularly motivated to supervise student-led PhD projects on the following topics: the psychological foundation of intergroup relations and intergenerational cooperation (i.e., sustainable behaviour).
For Japanese early career researchers (ECRs): Hiro is more than willing to help Japanese ECRs to come do a PhD/build their career in the UK (regardless of whether they do so with him at Royal Holloway). If you have any questions about PhD/career opportunities in the UK, feel free to contact him. He also offers free English-related consultations for Japanese ECRs (see this tweet).
Education
- Ph.D in Psychology, University of Kent, 2022
- MSc by research in Psychology, University of Kent, 2019
- BA in Psychology, Sophia University, 2018
- Studying Abroad (2016-2017), College of the Holy Cross
Teaching at Royal Holloway 2023/2024
- PS5202: Intergroup and Interpersonal Processes
- PS3090: Social Psychology in the Real World
- Y3 project supervision
