What is social cognition?

social cognition refers to the set of mental operations that underlie social situations; Therefore, they include the processes involved in the perception, interpretation, and generation of responses to the intentions, dispositions, and behaviors of others.

Social cognition refers to the way we think about others. In this sense, it would be a powerful tool to understand social relationships. Well, Through it, we understand the emotions, thoughts, intentions and social behaviors of others.

In social interactions, knowing what other people think and feel can be a huge advantage in functioning in that context. Let’s delve into it.

How does social cognition work?

People do not approach situations as neutral observers – although we often try to pretend that we do – but rather we carry our own desires and expectations. These previous attitudes will influence what we see and remember.

Thus, our senses receive information that is interpreted and analyzed. Subsequently, these interpretations are contrasted with the information we keep in memory.

However, this simple description is not true. There are other factors, such as emotions, that also condition the process. Remember that Thoughts influence emotions, but emotions also influence thoughts (Damasio, 1994).

For example, when we are in a good mood, the world is (or seems) a happier place. When we feel well we tend to perceive the present with more optimism, but we also look more positively at the past and the future.

How does social cognition develop?

Social cognition develops slowly (Fiske and Taylor, 1991). Follow a trial and error process based on observation. Direct experiences and exploration guide learning. However, social knowledge is very subjective. The interpretations we can make of a social event can be very different and erroneous.

Furthermore, although we have mental structures that facilitate the processing and organization of information, sometimes these very useful structures also betray us.

These structures or schemas influence attention, encoding and retrieval of information and can lead us to the self-fulfilling prophecy. This is a prediction that, once made, is itself the cause of it coming true (Merton, 1948).

Besides, social knowledge is, in part, independent of other types of knowledge. For example, people who have superior intellectual problem-solving skills do not necessarily have superior social problem-solving skills. This is why the improvement of other intelligences, such as emotional or cultural intelligence, is so important.

Put yourself in the perspective of others

One of the most useful models of social cognition is that of Robert Selman, who He anticipated a theory about the ability to place oneself in the social perspective of others.

For this author, assuming the social perspective of others gives us the power to understand ourselves and others as subjectsallowing us to react to our own behavior from the point of view of others.

That said, Selman (1977) proposes five stages of development for this social perspective:

Stage 0: undifferentiated egocentric stage (3 to 6 years). Before the age of 6, children cannot make a clear distinction between their own interpretation of a social situation and the point of view of another. Nor can they understand that their own conception may not be correct.Stage 1: differential or subjective perspective-taking stage, or informational-social stage (from 6 years to 8 years). Children this age develop the knowledge that other people may have a different perspective. However, they have little understanding of the reasons behind others’ views.Stage 2: Self-reflective perspective taking and reciprocal perspective taking (8 to 10 years). Pre-adolescents, at this stage, take the perspective of another individual. Well, they are already capable of making differences about the perspectives of others and can reflect on the motivations underlying their own behavior from the perspective of another person.Stage 3: Mutual or third-person perspective-taking stage (ages 10 to 12). At this stage, the individual is able to see his or her own perspectives, those of his or her peers, as well as those of a neutral third person.Stage 4: stage of taking a deep individual perspective and within the social system (adolescence and adulthood). There are two characteristics that distinguish adolescents’ conceptions from other people. First, they become aware that motives, actions, thoughts and feelings are shaped by psychological factors. Second, they begin to appreciate the fact that a personality is a system of traits, beliefs, values ​​and attitudes with its own evolutionary history.

Theory of mind

The Theory of Mind is a mentalistic ability, what does this mean? According to the authors, it offers different possibilities:

Perceive mental states in other beings and recognize one’s own mental states as different from those of others.Differentiate particular mental states from others. Attribute mental states using the attributed states to explain and precede behavior of a predictive and personal organizational nature.

Two ways of looking at social cognition

Within psychology there are various ways of understanding social cognition. One of the most important emphasizes the social dimension of knowledge. Knowledge, according to this perspective, would have a socio-cultural origin, since it is shared by social groups.

The main exponent of this idea is Moscovici (1988), who spoke of “social representations”. These are ideas, thoughts, images and knowledge that members of a community share.. In this case, social representations have a double function: knowing reality to plan action and facilitating communication.

Another perspective with great impact is the American one (Lewin, 1977). This way of understanding social cognition focuses on the individual and their psychological processes. According to this view, the individual builds his own cognitive structures based on interactions with his physical and social environment.

Final thoughts

As we see, Social cognition is the way we handle the vast amount of social information that we receive every day. The stimuli and data that we collect through the senses are analyzed and integrated into mental schemes, which will guide our thoughts and behaviors on subsequent occasions.

These schemas, once formed, will be difficult to change. Thus, According to the phrase attributed to Albert Einstein, it is easier to disintegrate an atom than a prejudice. Our first impressions are going to be crucial, unless we implement critical thinking that helps us develop social cognition that is more efficient and adjusted to reality.

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