Social Cognition

Social cognition represents the scientific approach within social psychology dedicated to studying how people process and respond to social information. The first half of this article reviews social cognition's relationship to cognitive and social psychology and traces its intellectual origins and contemporary influences. After reviewing key terms in social cognition (e.g., schemas, heuristics), the article turns to four major theoretical and research developments from the past 15. years. Specifically, the latter half of this article provides an overview of dual-process models, implicit and explicit attitudes, the automaticity of behavior, and social-cognitive neuroscience.