The Dartmouth Center for Social Brain Sciences involves scholars from across Dartmouth College who are conducting research examining the social, cognitive, and brain basis of the social mind. Some of the current goals of this research include:

1. Identifying the neural and cognitive mechanisms involved in perceiving, identifying, and evaluating other humans, including members of ones' own group as well as those from other groups. This includes understanding whether "people" are given privileged status by the brain as it processes objects in the environment as well as the cognitive processes involved in stereotyping and prejudice.
   
   
2. Identifying the neural mechanisms that subserve the human capacity for behavioral self-regulation. Self-regulation requires a number of executive cognitive functions, such as inhibiting prepotent behavioral responses, transcending emotions, making decisions, allocating attention, and setting distal goals. Relatively little is known about the brain mechanisms that allow people to override their initial reactions to members of other groups or control their mental processes more generally.
   
   
3. Understanding the social neuroscience of the self. Through the possession of a sense of self, people are able to provide order, coherence, and stability to their daily experiences. Yet little is known about the neural processes that support this unique human capacity. Current research considers the cognitive and neural operations that support self-recognition and the functioning of the self-memory system.
   
   
4. Understanding how interpersonal cues, such as emotional expression, gaze direction, and personal characteristics, influence person construal. The human face conveys important information that regulates social interactions, such as whether people are trustworthy, dangerous, or approachable. Little is known about the neural correlates of these processes or how they mature in the developing brain.
   
   
5. Understanding social theory of mind. The ability to predict behavior requires the capacity to perceive and understand others' mental states. This research examines individual differences in social theory of mind, including motivational and cognitive differences that support interpersonal judgments.