Social Neuroscience – toward Understanding the underpinnings of the Social Mind

The objective of this book is to introduce social cognitive neuroscience research that addresses questions of fundamental importance to social psychology, combining multiple methodologies in innovative ways. The book is divided into four sections. The first section deals with understanding and representing other people. The second section deals with representing social groups. The third section deals with the interplay of cognition and emotion in social regulation. The final section considers a range of novel questions that emerged in the context of social neuroscience research: understanding social exclusion as pain, deconstructing our moral intuitions, understanding cooperative exchanges with other agents, and the effect of aging on brain function and its implications for well-being. One of the fundamental problems of social cognition is how we represent and understand other people. The first section of the book contains four chapters exploring this problem. Another fundamental problem of social cognition is how we represent social groups. The second section of the book contains three chapters exploring this problem.

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