Across the millennia, human groups have evolved specific cultural and psychological adaptations to cope with collective threats, from terrorism to natural disasters to pathogens. In particular, cultural tightness, characterized by strict social norms and punishments, as one key adaptation that helps groups coordinate to survive collective threats. However, interferences with threat signals that facilitate tightening can lead to cultural mismatches—either too much or not enough tightening. I discuss two examples of cultural mismatches: the COVID-19 pandemic (a case in which collective threat is real, but there is a resistance to tightening) and the rise of populist movements (a case in which exaggerated threat leads to unnecessary tightening), and highlight theoretical and practical implications of cultural mismatch theory.

Obtaining meaning and using it for communication is crucial in our daily lives. Such mental operation can be revealed by studying language development and deficits. My talk targets two populations, including typically developing children for language development and children with autism for language deficits. I take a cognitive neural approach to examine the nature of organization and processing of language knowledge. Three sets of studies will be introduced to understand the cultural differences between Chinese and English typical children, the developmental changes in organization and processing in children, and potential therapy to treat children with autism. These findings are summarized to account for dynamic interaction in the cognitive neural mechanisms of meaning.

The work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a conflict of interest.