Social cognition affects how we perceive and interpret information about the intrapersonal and the interpersonal world, ourselves and the others around us (Fiske 1995)

There are many different strategies we use to make sense of our social world including Categorisation, Counterfactual thinking, Heuristics, Impression formation, Schemas and Thought suppression. Posner & Snyder (1975) separated these into two categories - 'unintentional' and 'intentional', also known as 'automatic' and 'controlled' cognitive processes.

Impression formation is the first step to understanding anything, without it our knowledge cannot develop. As impression formation is an automatic process, these are considered a vital part of social cognition. Although, they lack of control over automatic processes, rely on pre-existing knowledge, happen almost instantly, and are inable to adapt to all circumstances, making them prone to errors.

Controlled thinking encounters less error and is more adaptable. Although some may argue that as it is mainly applied to past occurrences, it is not of such great value or importance. However, reflection on the past can develop our knowledge and add to our experiences, to provide us with a more holistic understanding and view of our social world for the future. Therefore controlled thinking can be used to improve our automatic processes.

The first automatic process is Impression formation; first experiences can influence how we later treat and/or react with aspects of our social world. In 1946, Asch found that there are central and peripheral traits, central traits have a greater influence on the impressions that we form.

Asch studied this by giving participants a word list about an individual, either containing the word warm or cold, and then asking them to rate the individual on numerous types of characteristic impressions. A positive