Social cognition refers to the cognitive processes through which individuals perceive, interpret, organize, and use information about themselves, other people, and social situations [1][2]. It includes processes such as social perception, person perception, attribution, impression formation, categorization, memory for social information, emotion understanding, and reasoning about others’ thoughts and intentions [1][3]. Social cognition enables individuals to make sense of social environments and guides judgments, attitudes, decisions, and behaviors during social interactions [2][4]. These processes may operate through both automatic and controlled mechanisms and are influenced by prior knowledge, expectations, motivations, cultural experiences, and social contexts [3][4]. Research on social cognition examines how people construct representations of the social world and how these representations affect interpersonal relationships, group processes, and responses to social influence.
Psychology of Social Influence • Sociology and Political Science • Social Sciences • Social Sciences