Title: Social perception across the lifespan
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: From day to day we encounter a variety of social signals that provide subtle but important insights into how we need to behave (e.g. judging someones' emotions or the focus of their social attention). Our ability to perceive and correctly interpret these signals is critically important to successful interactions and well-being, and reductions in social perception abilities (e.g. in conditions like alexithymia, autism) can lead to a number of difficulties that have wide impacts including poor social competence and isolation. In recent years the field of social neuroscience has led to a number of novel insights into the mechanisms that support social perception and how they change as we age. This seminar series aims to bring together researchers working on mechanisms of social perception across the lifespan (e.g. in infancy, in adolescence, in adulthood, and in the elderly) to discuss timely issues related to how social perception abilities change as we age, including: what changes occur to our social perception abilities across the lifespan; what mechanisms contribute to this; what are the consequences of these changes; and whether we can facilitate positive changes in social perception abilities. It also aims to allow researchers to engage with the public/professionals (e.g. teachers, carers, policy makers) about how social perception abilities change across the lifespan and what impact this can have for society. To achieve this aim, a series of four workshops and an online conference will be held. The workshops will be spread over a one year period with each focused on a different theme: 1) social perception in childhood, 2) social perception in adolescence, 3) social perception in adulthood, 4) social perception in the elderly. The online conference will run beyond the one year workshops and serve as a discussion forum about key issues related to the workshops (using text and video clips). The format of the workshops will include keynote talks given by senior career researchers, followed by discussions of key issues raised by the talks that will be given by early career researchers, and finally questions and answers from all workshop participants for the keynote speaker and the discussants. Each workshop will contain two keynote speakers and four discussants. This format will promote an active dialogue about important issues related to mechanisms of social perception across the lifespan for all workshop participants and facilitate discussions between early and senior career researchers. The website will provide a means for further knowledge transfer, user-engagement, and discussion of key issues related to studies examining social perception abilities across the lifespan. In sum, this seminar series will combine a series of workshops centered on mechanisms of social perception across the lifespan with a web conference related to the same topic. The workshops will integrate talks by senior researchers with discussion sessions led by early career researchers, and provide an opportunity for all workshop participants to contribute to discussions of key issues related to how mechanisms of social perception change as we age. The web conference will facilitate these discussions further and widen the impact of the workshops cross-nationally/to those that cannot physically attend (including members of the public). The seminar series will therefore promote interactions between different groups of academics (e.g. early/late career researchers), and engage with a wider audience (e.g. public/professional bodies) about how social perception abilities change as we age (and the impact of this for society).


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH