The benefits from social neuroscience to social cognition research

Abstract

Social cognition research has been developed mainly with methodologies in social psychology since its early years. Social neuroscience, originated in 1990s, has promoted a great expansion of social cognition research by bringing in a new perspective and methodologies, and there is a growing expectation for future research. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how social cognition research has benefitted from the emergence of social neuroscience. The benefits are discussed from the following perspectives; (a) examination of hypothetical concepts, (b) examination of psychological processes, and (c) examination of unconscious processes.