Cooperative dual identity: A new approach to promote ethnic harmony between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. This project makes a significant contribution to strengthening Australia's social fabric by promoting positive cooperation between Muslim and non-Muslim students. Cooperative contact and dual identity strategies will be innovatively integrated into school curricula using web technology to encourage positive intergroup interactions that are currently not commonplace. Researchers, policy- ....Cooperative dual identity: A new approach to promote ethnic harmony between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. This project makes a significant contribution to strengthening Australia's social fabric by promoting positive cooperation between Muslim and non-Muslim students. Cooperative contact and dual identity strategies will be innovatively integrated into school curricula using web technology to encourage positive intergroup interactions that are currently not commonplace. Researchers, policy-makers, and teachers will have available a significantly effective long-term ethnic harmony strategy, which will be incorporated routinely into their research and practice. We expect this cutting edge research program to yield timely and influential findings, and advance Australia's position as a leader in the field of social and developmental psychology.Read moreRead less
From the inevitability of prejudice to the origins of social change: The emergence of perceived illegitimacy in intergroup relations. This project examines the social psychological processes underpinning the (il)legitimacy of intergroup relations, prejudice, and social stability and change. To date it is accepted that those who do not perceive a social system (community, culture, society) as politically and morally legitimate are more likely to reject the status quo and seek change. What is miss ....From the inevitability of prejudice to the origins of social change: The emergence of perceived illegitimacy in intergroup relations. This project examines the social psychological processes underpinning the (il)legitimacy of intergroup relations, prejudice, and social stability and change. To date it is accepted that those who do not perceive a social system (community, culture, society) as politically and morally legitimate are more likely to reject the status quo and seek change. What is missing is the crucial analysis of how and when perceived legitimacy is transformed into illegitimacy. The project elaborates a novel and comprehensive approach to the illegitimacy question based on social identity and self-categorization theories and tests it through a major program of survey and laboratory-based research.Read moreRead less
Beyond the Beach: What it means to be Australian - A critical analysis of national, transgenerational, multicultural and self perspectives. The question ?What does it mean to be Australian?? raises issues of deep significance about our values, goals, loyalties, behaviours, and international image. Identity conceptions are fundamental to diverse national interest issues (e.g., social cohesion, multiculturalism, defence, promoting industry, social action/reform, immigration) and imagining our futu ....Beyond the Beach: What it means to be Australian - A critical analysis of national, transgenerational, multicultural and self perspectives. The question ?What does it mean to be Australian?? raises issues of deep significance about our values, goals, loyalties, behaviours, and international image. Identity conceptions are fundamental to diverse national interest issues (e.g., social cohesion, multiculturalism, defence, promoting industry, social action/reform, immigration) and imagining our future. This study will characterise: national identity; personal, ethnic, generational, regional and gender commonalities and variations; preferred futures; and moderating influences on identifying as Australian. Outcomes include new knowledge about contemporary national identity, multi-identity constructions, and processes underpinning identity formation; and advances in identity theory/research that will inform social, economic, and educational policy and practice.Read moreRead less
Optimal strategies for collaborative visual search. The ability of individual operators to search for and detect targets is a weak link in many military, medical, and industrial operations. Teams of operators, however, can perform well even when individuals do not. This project aims to investigate a promising new eye-tracking technique, gaze-linking, that helps searchers collaborate efficiently by allowing each to know where the other is looking. This research builds on mathematical models of in ....Optimal strategies for collaborative visual search. The ability of individual operators to search for and detect targets is a weak link in many military, medical, and industrial operations. Teams of operators, however, can perform well even when individuals do not. This project aims to investigate a promising new eye-tracking technique, gaze-linking, that helps searchers collaborate efficiently by allowing each to know where the other is looking. This research builds on mathematical models of information processing to identify strategies that optimise gaze-linked collaboration, and is expected to develop principles for training gaze-linked searchers. Gaze-linking offers a promising, and potentially economical, technique for improving human performance, increasing efficiency and safety in a variety of tasks.Read moreRead less
Protecting the Australian passport by developing face recognition training programs that effectively integrate human operators and machine systems. The security of the Australian passport is vital to the fight against crime and terrorism. This project will help detect identity fraud in passport applications by developing training programs drawing on the psychology of face processing to optimally combine human decision making with machine face recognition systems to maximise fraud detection.
The Governance of Defiance. Defiance is a threat to social order. For this reason sanctioning institutions are in place to punish the defiant through legal, financial and sometimes physical means. The institutional rationale is that, at worst defiance will be silenced and at best, compliance will take its place. Increasingly, adverse and unexpected consequences of dealing with defiance in this way have been exposed. To be accountable for their actions, therefore, authorities have begun to develo ....The Governance of Defiance. Defiance is a threat to social order. For this reason sanctioning institutions are in place to punish the defiant through legal, financial and sometimes physical means. The institutional rationale is that, at worst defiance will be silenced and at best, compliance will take its place. Increasingly, adverse and unexpected consequences of dealing with defiance in this way have been exposed. To be accountable for their actions, therefore, authorities have begun to develop more responsive and deliberative systems. But they also need to know how to read defiance. When is defiance an inappropriate response to a more than reasonable request? And when is defiance a reflection of institutional failure? This project can inform such decision making.Read moreRead less
Improving Productivity in Emergency Service Personnel. Emergency service personnel experience marked levels of lost productivity, absenteeism, early retirements, and compensation claims as a result of stress reactions. This project aims to improve productivity and reduce compensation costs in emergency service organisations by evaluating a program that reduces stress reactions and increases cognitive functioning in police, firefighters, and paramedics in NSW. An individual program will be admini ....Improving Productivity in Emergency Service Personnel. Emergency service personnel experience marked levels of lost productivity, absenteeism, early retirements, and compensation claims as a result of stress reactions. This project aims to improve productivity and reduce compensation costs in emergency service organisations by evaluating a program that reduces stress reactions and increases cognitive functioning in police, firefighters, and paramedics in NSW. An individual program will be administered to 120 emergency service personnel who have difficulty maintaining their work duties because of stress reactions. Expected outcomes will be reduction in absenteeism, improved productivity, and reduced costs to insurers.
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Faces in context: A new ecological paradigm for person identification. Accurate face recognition is critical to normal social functioning of individuals and identity management processes that underpin a secure and fair Australia. Current understanding is based on tests that do not capture the rich context surrounding person identification in daily life. This project aims to introduce new methods for observing person identification in daily life and real-world tasks that are critical to border se ....Faces in context: A new ecological paradigm for person identification. Accurate face recognition is critical to normal social functioning of individuals and identity management processes that underpin a secure and fair Australia. Current understanding is based on tests that do not capture the rich context surrounding person identification in daily life. This project aims to introduce new methods for observing person identification in daily life and real-world tasks that are critical to border security, criminal investigations and the justice system. Expected outcomes include an integrated framework for person identification describing the cognitive mechanisms that link faces to surrounding visual context and the viewer’s background knowledge. Benefits in forensic, security and legal settings are expected.Read moreRead less
Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowled ....Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowledge gained as a result of the project in perceptual and cognitive processes will strengthen legal systems and national security by minimising the risk of identification errors in critical roles.Read moreRead less
Managing compliance with procedural justice: The role of motivational postures, legitimacy and emotion. Regulatory authorities exist to ensure that members of the public comply with their obligations under the law. At the same time, however, regulators should not exercise their authority in ways that result in the alienation of the public. Using social science methodology, this project will examine the role that procedurally fair regulation can play in promoting trust and confidence in authoriti ....Managing compliance with procedural justice: The role of motivational postures, legitimacy and emotion. Regulatory authorities exist to ensure that members of the public comply with their obligations under the law. At the same time, however, regulators should not exercise their authority in ways that result in the alienation of the public. Using social science methodology, this project will examine the role that procedurally fair regulation can play in promoting trust and confidence in authorities. The national and community benefits of this project will include ascertaining how greater levels of cooperation and compliance with regulatory decisions and laws can be facilitated; particularly among those who may feel disgruntled with their experiences with authority.Read moreRead less