C Neil Macrae

Neil Macrae is a professor in social psychology from Aberdeen where he completed his ph.d. in 1990. He was until recently at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and he is currently professor of social cognition at the University of Aberdeen. His research is on core aspects of social cognition (e.g. person understanding, self) using both behavioral and neuroimaging approaches. Neil Macrae is among the pioneers of social cognition, contributing (with M. Hewstone) the entry (article) on “social cognition” The Blackwell dictionary of cognitive psychology already in 1990. Lately, many more social psychologists have flocked to the brain scanners to resolve longstanding social and philosophical questions (such as questions of self) with neuroimaging methods. Neil Macrae is among the best examples of this feature of social cognition, and we have asked him to give one of the opening lectures to present social cognition as a scientific field.