Social cognition is a branch of social psychology that explores how people interact with each other and their environment, focusing on how the brain encodes and stores information. Cognitive processes are used to store and retrieve social information, including the formation of stereotypes. Social cognition also plays a role in early childhood development. Much of social cognition occurs subconsciously, and while everyone forms stereotypes, conscious use and reflection can be concerning.
Social cognition is an aspect of social psychology concerned with exploring how people interact with each other and with their environment. Specifically, social psychology focuses on how information is encoded and stored by the brain so that it can be retrieved later. A number of cognitive processes are used in the process of storing social information and linking related information so that it can be retrieved when it may be valuable.
When people interact with each other, they are constantly in the process of memorizing new information while remembering existing information that may be useful for the interaction. For example, when meeting someone new, a person’s brain will use the basic information provided, such as the new acquaintance’s age, race, and gender, to create associations that can facilitate social interaction. This information is remembered and used on an unconscious level.
People also store social information that they think might be valuable. This can include memories of social experiences, information about specific people, and information about social groups. This information is used in future social interactions and further processing of social experiences. A number of cognitive processes come into play with social cognition, including the formation of stereotypes and other shortcuts to information processing.
Some students of social cognition theory are particularly interested in the role of social cognition in early childhood development. The culture in which a child is raised clearly has a major impact on how the child develops, as illustrated in a number of studies. Researchers study how children process social information and how social maturity evolves with age. Researchers may also be interested in people who lack social skills or who interact with people in unique, unfamiliar, or unusual ways.
It is important to be aware that much of social cognition occurs at a subconscious level. Many of the terms used in social psychology have meanings outside this field; “stereotype”, for example, is often seen as a negative concept, when in social psychology it is a tool to help people process social information. Everyone forms stereotypes on an unconscious level; it is the conscious use and reflection of stereotypes that can become a cause for concern. Classifying people is a shortcut used by the brain to group similar information, but people don’t necessarily have to act on the classifications provided by the brain.
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