Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how
biological systems implement social processes and
behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior.
Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather than individualists. As such,
Homo sapiens create
emergent organizations beyond the individual—structures that range from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, and cultures. These emergent structures evolved hand in hand with
neural and
hormonal mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms survive, reproduce, and care for offspring sufficiently long that they too survived to reproduce. The term "social neuroscience" can be traced to a publication entitled "Social Neuroscience Bulletin" that was published quarterly between 1988 and 1994. The term was subsequently popularized in an article by
John Cacioppo and
Gary Berntson, published in
the American Psychologist in 1992. Cacioppo and Berntson are considered as the legitimate fathers of social neuroscience. Still a young field, social neuroscience is closely related to
affective neuroscience and
cognitive neuroscience, focusing on how the
brain mediates
social interactions.