The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition, Second Edition

The second edition of TheOxford Handbook of Social Cognition is virtually an all-new update and extension of the historic first edition. It contains over 40 chapters that encompass social cognition’s history and methods, primary approaches and theories, and applications both to social psychology and to other social sciences, all written by luminaries in the field. Several chapters from the first edition have been extended and updated by the original authors, but most provide the perspective of new contributors and many address topics and areas not included in the first edition.

New perspectives are provided by chapters on such central social cognitive topics as impression formation, dual process theories, motivated cognition, construal level, attention, the self, prejudice and stereotyping, as well as social cognitive approaches to attitudes, personal relationships, evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience, communication, culture, law, health, consumer and political psychologies. Altogether new topics include best research practices, fluency, eye-tracking, happiness, intersectionality, identity threat, morality, embodied cognition and mind perception, among others.

Together these chapters provide a comprehensive review of social cognitive theory, research, and applications since its inception in the 1970s, but especially over the past decade, along with thoughtful perspectives on where the field is likely to go next. This handbook represents a definitive statement about how social cognition has developed, what it has become today, and where it is likely to lead us tomorrow. It is an essential resource for anyone whose work touches on social cognition, which is virtually everyone in psychology and related fields.

Donal E. Carlston taught at the University of Iowa for 12 years and at Purdue University for 28. He edited The Journal Social Cognition for 12 years, served on National Institutes of Health grant panels for 14 years, organized the Duck Conference on Social Cognition for 30 years, and was President of the Midwestern Psychological Association in 2010. He is recipient of the Ostrom Award for outstanding lifetime contributions to theory and research in social cognition and the Midwestern Psychological Association’s Award for Excellence in service to the field of psychology.

Kurt Hugenberg is a Professor at Indiana University’s Department of Psycholgical and Brain Sciences. He has published more than 100 articles and chapters in social psychology and social cognition. He has multiple research awards, including won the 2018 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize from SPSSI (with Kerry Kawakami and Dave Amodio). He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and of the Midwestern Psychological Association. His research focuses on stereotyping, prejudice, and face perception.

Kerri Johnson is a Professor in the Departments of Communication and Psychology at UCLA where she also serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Development. Her research is central to the burgeoning field of Social Vision where she probes how visible cures in the face and body affect the first impressions that people form about others.