About this Research Topic

Background

The social mind facilitates the interaction with other people through cognitive and affective processes that allow to predict what others will do. The ability to make very accurate predictions of others’ behavior allows for greater success in social interactions. Furthermore, the humans look at each other’s behavior to decide what to think and how to behave by creating a complex intertwining of processes of social influence.
Fundamental components subserving social cognition and social influence and promoting social interaction include: empathy, altruistic and prosocial behavior, cooperation, social norms, conformism, compliance, obedience, social inclusion, and gratitude. All these aspects of social cognition and influence are all closely intertwined with each other and reflect the complexity of the neural systems that underlie emotional and cognitive processes during social interactions.
Ultimately, the success of social interactions can affect general well-being and reduce emotions associated with negative psychological health outcomes, such as social isolation, stress, and depression. The impact of social interactions can affect mental and physical well-being.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is having a significant impact on social relationships, and radical changes have occurred in people’s social habits and ways of social interaction. Accordingly, the social brain is expected to adjust to these epochal changes, with possible functional adaptations in relation with the new social skills required. What kind of modulation and impact can COVID-19 have on the social skills and neural networks of social brain? What role have the main processes of social influence (conformism, acquiescence, obedience) played in modulating attitudes and behaviors in the time of the coronavirus?
What kind of psychophysiological, neurophysiological response related to emotional and cognitive processes can be observed in relation to the impact of COVID on social competence skills, such as empathy, cooperation, social inclusion, gratitude? This research topic aims to collect manuscripts that describe the impact of COVID-19 on the social brain through theoretical contributions or with original data.

We invite experts from cognitive, experimental and social psychology and neuroscience, computational neuroscience, neurology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, psychology, psychophysiology, psychiatry and public health. Contributions from clinical experts, social and cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists are all welcome.
The purpose of this Research Topic is to offer and create a dialectical space across multiple perspectives to discuss the current and important issue of social cognition adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We encourage researchers who use various methods, such as qualitative and quantitative research methods, neuroimaging, psychophysiology, artificial intelligence, neuropsychological assessment tools, etc etc. In addition to original empirical contributions, theoretical paper such as reviews, mini-reviews, perspectives , opinions, commentaries are also encouraged.

Keywords: social cognition, social influence, social brain, social interactions, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), empathy, altruistic and prosocial behavior, cooperation, social norms, conformism, compliance, obedience, social inclusion, gratitude, well-being, social isolation, stress, depression, public health

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