The Social Neuroscience of Social Cognition

Abstract

Abstract This chapter highlights theoretical insights about social cognition revealed with neuroscience measures. It discusses how social neuroscience methods are well suited to the study of social cognition because they provide insight into the elements of social cognition in real time via the central and peripheral nervous systems. Neuroscience methods specifically allow researchers to assess multiple simultaneously unfolding social cognitive processes without requiring subjects’ willingness or ability to report their thoughts and feelings. They also support inferences about individual information processing operations through measurement of different brain areas or physiological systems or to responses at different points in time, congruent with the focus within social cognition on separate components of social behavior. The chapter illustrates these points with a focus on social neuroscience research on the self, social perception, social evaluation, and behavior regulation. It also briefly reviews common social neuroscience methods and notes key unaddressed questions and promising future directions.