Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The Zulu people of South Africa have a saying ""Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu"" (A person is a person through people""). This is more than just a proverb, however, as it forms the bedrock of this project's approach to psychology. By studying the social behavior of humans and our non-human primate cousins, we can discover how the actions of others help shape our social worlds, and hence our psychology. The intensely social nature of primate life is one of its defining characterisics, and is thought to have shaped both the size and structure of the brain, and the particular ways in which we think and act in the world. Research in this area has usually considered social cognition to be an abstract, 'disembodied' process that take places solely inside the head. Recent work in neurobiology, robotics and cognitive science, however, emphasises that physical, bodily engagement with the world, and with other individuals, can and should be considered as part and parcel of any cognitive process.This, in turn, means that cognition can be considered as visible, public and social, and not simply as invisible, hidden and private. We can see the mental activity of other people and other animals roll out in front of us, as we observe their patterns of behaviour over time. Using both observational and experimental approaches, the aim here is to test predictions regarding the manner in which social interactions both scaffold and shape cognitive development, and assess the influence of emotional and perceptual mechanisms on social understanding. In this way, we can explore how the various kinds of 'social niches' we inhabit throughout the lifespan influence psychological functioning, as well as investigate how language and culture help generate interesting differences between humans and other primates. By challenging long-held paradigms about cognition and socialization in primates, this work paves the way for new kinds of cognitive and social psychology, with the potential to enhance individual social experience by understanding more about the skills needed to navigate our complex social landscapes.