Social Perception from Individuals to Groups

This volume focuses on social perception, the processing of information about people. This issue has always been central to social psychology, but this book brings together literatures that in large part have been separated by the nature of the social target that is involved. Historically, research on person perception developed quite independently from research involving perceptions of groups. Whereas the former research generally focused on the cognitive processes involved in forming impressions of individuals, research on group perception examined the content of stereotypes and the conditions under which they are used in social judgment. There was been little overlap in the theories and methods of these subfields, and different researchers were central in each. The chapters in this book will highlight research and theorizing about social perception, exploring the processes involved in social perception from persons to groups. Some chapters describe work that was originally developed in person perception bu

Steven J. Stroessner is Professor of Psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City, having earned his Ph.D. in Social/Personailty Psychology from University of California, Santa Barbara in 1992. He has two general research interests: (1) Stereotypicality and Social Categorization, and (2) Vigilance and Stereotyping. Jeffrey W. Sherman is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, having earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994. His research interests are in the cognitive processes underlying social psychology and behavior. In particular, he studies how people perceive themselves, other people, and groups of people. He is currently Editor of the journal Social Cognition.