Cerebral hemispheric asymmetries in social perception:: Perceiving and responding to the individual and the group

A recently developed model of social perception (Zarate, Sanders, & Garza, 2000) contends that categorization and identification are two distinct processes, each dominated by a different cerebral hemisphere. It is postulated that the right cerebral hemisphere more efficiently produces and retrieves person-based memories. In contrast, the left cerebral hemisphere more efficiently produces and retrieves group-based memories. The reported experiment focuses on responses to person-based versus group-based targets as a function of prior classical conditioning. Participants were presented with a target that was always associated with an obnoxious tone. Later, the target was presented with multiple other targets. Galvanic skin response measures were used to identify implicit reactions to the target person, new targets similar to the target person, and old filler targets. Results demonstrated person-based learning in the right hemisphere and group-based learning in the left hemisphere. These results provide further evidence for dual encoding mechanisms underlying social perception. The model is discussed in relation to models of social perception and stereotyping.