Grounding Social Cognition in Space

The meaningfulness of links between space and social meaning is tackeld from a socio-cogntive perspective. We addressed the role of space in basic social-cognitive processes, such as group membership definition (differentiation of in-group vs. out-group), stereotyping (the attribution of characteristics on the base of social membership), emergence of prejudice (whether we prefer or dislike people because of their group membership), and creation of social status. We addressed the role spatial features play in these social phenomena, specifically focusing on three major spatial aspects, namely distance, verticality, and asymmetries in the horizontal axis. Each of these is linked to primarily one social aspect, namely social closeness, hierarchy, and agency, respectively. These links between aspects of the spatial environment and the social environment direct our cognition, behavior, feeling, and relations.