1. cognition in which people perceive, think about, interpret, categorize, and judge their own social behaviors and those of others. The study of social cognition involves aspects of both cognitive psychology and social psychology. Major areas of interest include attribution theory, person perception, social influence, and the cognitive processes involved in moral judgments.

2. in animal behavior, the knowledge that an individual has about other members of its social group and the ability to reason about the actions of others based on this knowledge. In vervet monkeys, for example, after an individual in matriline (matrilineal line of descent) A attacks an individual in matriline B, other members of B are more likely to attack members in A.