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Cultural Neuroscience of Social Cognition

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Culture and Neural Frames of Cognition and Communication

Part of the book series: On Thinking ((ONTHINKING))

Abstract

A contemporary mystery for both social neuroscientists and social cognitive neuroscientists has been to distill the core mechanisms in the human brain that facilitate complex social behavior. The purpose of this chapter is to examine this mystery from a cultural neuroscience perspective. Opening with a description of the social brain hypothesis, the chapter first describes research on the neurobiological basis of human social behavior, as well as an account of the culture–gene coevolutionary theory. In the next section, the chapter examines the theory and methods used by cultural neuroscientists to investigate the development of the social brain over the course of culture–gene coevolution. This section reviews recent evidence for cultural influences on social cognitive brain function across a range of domains from self-knowledge and interpersonal perception to empathy and theory of mind. Finally, the chapter ends with questions open to future research endeavors using cultural neuroscience methods to examine social cognition.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Tetsuya Iidaka, Tokiko Harada, Ahmad Hariri, Steve Franconeri and members of the NU Social Affective and Cultural Neuroscience Lab for thoughtful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Joan Y. Chiao & Genna M. Bebko

  2. Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Joan Y. Chiao & Genna M. Bebko

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  1. Joan Y. Chiao
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  2. Genna M. Bebko
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Correspondence to Joan Y. Chiao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychology, Peking University, Yiheyuan Road 5, Beijing, 100871, China, People's Republic

    Shihui Han

  2. Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Goethestr. 31, Munich, 80336, Germany

    Ernst Pöppel

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Chiao, J.Y., Bebko, G.M. (2011). Cultural Neuroscience of Social Cognition. In: Han, S., Pöppel, E. (eds) Culture and Neural Frames of Cognition and Communication. On Thinking. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15423-2_2

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