Social Neuroscience sits at the intersection of social psychology and neuroscience. It proposes that all all human behaviour is in some way biological based and proposes that the best way to understand complex social behaviour is through the integration of social and biological approaches. In the Southampton Social Neuroscience Laboratory we use neuroscientific tools (EEG. fMRI, brain stimultion) to address questions traditionally of interest to social psychologists and develop neuroscientic theories that explain the biological basis of variation in human personality and social behaviour.

As part of the Centre for Research on Self and Identity, we are broadly interested in the neural basis of the representational self (how identity is represented in the mind and brain), the executive self (how identity influences decision-making), and the relational self (how identity shapes social bonds). We are currently focused on three research programmes. In the first, we are developing and testing a neurocognitive model of narcissism that links this socially pernicious trait to models of error processing, feedback processing, and anterior cingulate cortex function. In the second, we are investigating how the brain responds to hedonic and eudaimonic rewards to test an existential model of self-control. In the third, we are harnessing insights from the science of authenticity to clarify the neural time course of self-relevant information processing.