A neuroimaging meta-analysis on social impression formation of stable characteristics

The dense and rapidly changing information conveyed through social interactions must be processed efficiently, allowing individuals to form impressions of others that guide social behavior. The present study summarizes over 100 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies on social impressions concerning stable attributes, highlighting overlapping and specific neural mechanisms for their different sub-types. We identified an extensive network involved in forming social impressions, including areas associated with person perception and emotional processing, alongside the mentalizing system in the medial prefrontal cortex and the semantic control network in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the pre-supplementary motor area. Implicit judgments appear to activate areas related to person perception such as the middle occipital cortex alongside the fusiform gyrus, while explicit judgments engage nodes of the mentalizing and the semantic control systems. Evaluating warmth involves the right IFG, possibly supporting the translation of inferences about others’ warmth into social behavior. Additionally, attractive faces recruit the reward system. Psychological attributions involve left-hemispheric sectors of the mentalizing network, while physical attributions engage areas related to social categorization. Both physical and psychological attributions involve the insula, highlighting its potential role in the emotional facet of prejudice. The present results may guide the design of neuromodulation treatments.