ABSTRACT
P sychological research on the mechanisms underlying affective influences on social cognition goes back several decades and has generated an exciting empirical literature, as illustrated by other chapters in this book. More recently, our understanding of these mechanisms has been enriched by advances in social neuroscience (e.g., Cacioppo et al., 2002; Harmon-Jones & Winkielman, in press; Winkielman, Berntson, & Cacioppo, 2001). A premise underlying work in social and affective neuroscience, as well as cognitive neuroscience, is that our understanding of information processing mechanisms can be informed by studying the operation of the central nervous system (brain) and the peripheral nervous system (body). Consequently, social and affective neuroscientists study how stimulation or lesion of a circumscribed nervous circuit influences a specific mental function and how performing a specific mental function influences activity of a circumscribed nervous circuit.
