Social Cognition

The social cognition indicates the whole of the cognitive processes (Perception, memorizing, Raisonnement, emotion S…) implied in the social interactions at the Man but also at the animal social, in particular Primate S.

Individual social cognition

By the same terms, the social cognition returns to the approach cognitivist in Psychologie. From this point of view, the social objects are the subject of mental representations of the type diagrams (i.e. characteristic elements, the prototypic attributes and specimens). For example, the concept of professor would fall under a diagram with attributes like the authority, the knowledge and of the specimens which would be the professors who marked us. However according to the theory cognitivist, the activation of a concept (by an element of the context, by an active reminiscence, or other) is supposed to facilitate the Accessibilité with its diagram and the concepts which are dependant for him. Thus, in the social sphere, the interaction with a given individual would activate a series of diagrams which them same would influence our social cognition by what they evoke. For example, if one introduces an individual to us as being professor, our jugment could be skewed by the diagram activated by this concept: this individual will seem to us erudite or authoritative according to the mental representations associated with the activated diagram.

This prospect thus offers an explanation to the phenomena of Préjugé S, of Racisme, but also of Amitié…

Neurosciences of social cognition

From the Years 1990, the cognitive Neurosciences started to be interested in the cerebral bases of social cognition. In particular, the neuropsychological studies of patients victims of a cerebral lesion in certain areas of the frontal Lobe had a resounding impact by showing that these areas played a crucial role in the social judgment and the interactions with others. The historical example which illustrates the book of the Neurologue Antonio Damasio the Error of Descartes is the case of Phineas Gage (1823-1860) whose social behavior would have been modified following an accident making him lose part of the Cortex préfrontal. Beyond this anecdotic observation, the cognitive Neurosciences since largely confirmed the importance of certain areas of the brain in the social processes by means of the cerebral Imagerie. One can quote some examples

the temporal cortex , in particular the spindle-shaped Gyrus in the Reconnaissance of the faces and the higher temporal Sillon in the Perception of the human Voix;
the cortex Prémoteur, and in particular the neurons mirrors, in the processes of imitation and Empathie;
the cortical structures médiales (Cingulaire S, in particular) which are implied in the distinction between oneself and others;
the Complex amygdalien in the emotions and confidence in others

A new prospect was introduced during the Années 2000 with the introduction of experimental situations closer to the real social interactions. Inspired by the experimental economy, this approach which is registered sometimes under the banner of the Neuroéconomie seeks to include/understand the neuronal mechanisms which are implied in phenomena such as the Altruisme, the Confiance in autri, the Punition of a cheater, or the moral judgment .

This progress in knowledge of the human brain meets the discoveries made in the animal in cognitive ethology. These last tend to show that certain faculties of social cognition human have their origins évolutionnaires in capacities which share of other animals, the such large monkeys. It is in particular, one of the arguments of the evolutionary Psychologie: the brain of the man (as that of the animal) is a complex machinery which it should be studied while seeking how it is adaptatée with its ecosystem which, on the whole, consists of other members of its species. There is thus nothing astonishing to discover that some of these faculties are Inné are like the fact of expressing certain emotions with a facial Expression particular which one finds in blind children of birth who thus could not learn it by Imitation.

This prospect brings a new lighting on Pathologie S development ales to social component such as the Autisme or the Syndrome of Williams. Recent research states indeed that they correspond, at least partly, with a dysfunction of certain mechanisms of social cognition. That would explain why these patients can in addition have normal capacities in other fields of the Cognition.

Collective social cognition

By Métonymie, the term indicates also a Paradigme of the social Psychologie which studies these mental processes on the level of the groups or crowd.

The groups tend to modify individual cognition:

is because of a widening of the information sources, which is a positive effect;
is because of social Pression (Conditionnement), which can lead to a certain impoverishment of the reasoning, an effect which is then negative.

In bond with the concept of diagram on the level of individual social cognition, social psychology developed the concept of Stéréotype introduces by Walter Lippmann (from an initially different point of view which corresponded more to the Préjugé). The concept of stereotype makes it possible to give an account of the existence of social representations shared within a human group in connection with an other human group (or of itself).

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