Social Cognition

The field of social cognition concerns individuals’ thought processes in the context of the social world—how people think about themselves and other people. Although rooted in social psychology, social cognition is an interdisciplinary area of study and borrows from other fields, such as communication, developmental psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. In addition, social cognitive theory and research can be applied to real-world contexts, such as the legal system, health care, and marriage counseling. This entry provides an overview of the methodological tools and procedures used to study social cognition. Common critiques of these methods are also discussed.

Social cognition describes how a person reacts to stimuli and their response to it. The stimuli are often people or aspects/attributes of people that are related to the social ...