Jason P. Mitchell

About

Jason P. Mitchell is a principal investigator at Harvard University whose research focuses on social cognition, social influence, and the neural mechanisms underlying social behavior. His work involves understanding how the brain makes mental state judgments and how social and behavioral modifications are influenced by social environments. Mitchell's research also explores the cognitive and neural processes that differentiate humans from non-human primates, aiming to uncover what makes human social cognition unique. Throughout his career, Mitchell has contributed to the understanding of social neuroscience, examining how representations in the brain support social understanding and decision-making. His research integrates behavioral studies with neural investigations to elucidate the mechanisms of social influence, memory, and cognition. As a leader in the field, Mitchell's work advances knowledge of the neural basis of social behavior and the psychological processes that shape social interactions.

Research topics

• Social psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• Intuitive Prosociality

  Current Directions in Psychological Science · 2013-12-01 · 333 citations

  articleSenior author

  Prosocial behavior is a central feature of human life and a major focus of research across the natural and social sciences. Most theoretical models of prosociality share a common assumption: Humans are instinctively selfish, and prosocial behavior requires exerting reflective control over these basic instincts. However, findings from several scientific disciplines have recently contradicted this view. Rather than requiring control over instinctive selfishness, prosocial behavior appears to stem…

  PublisherDOI

• Reading fiction and reading minds: the role of simulation in the default network

  Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · 2015-09-04 · 208 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While under…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prosocial Conformity

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2016-05-26 · 182 citations

  article

  Generosity is contagious: People imitate others' prosocial behaviors. However, research on such prosocial conformity focuses on cases in which people merely reproduce others' positive actions. Hence, we know little about the breadth of prosocial conformity. Can prosocial conformity cross behavior types or even jump from behavior to affect? Five studies address these questions. In Studies 1 to 3, participants decided how much to donate to charities before learning that others donated generously o…

  PublisherDOI

• Neural evidence that three dimensions organize mental state representation: Rationality, social impact, and valence

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2015-11-30 · 178 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Significance This study uses advanced functional neuroimaging analyses to test both existing and novel psychological theories about how we understand others’ minds. Analyses show that three dimensions—rationality, social impact, and valence—account for almost half of the variation in the neural representation of mental states, the most comprehensive theory to date regarding our ability to think about others’ minds. These findings both inform long-standing debates within social psychology about t…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Theories of Person Perception Predict Patterns of Neural Activity During Mentalizing

  Cerebral Cortex · 2017-08-01 · 105 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Social life requires making inferences about other people. What information do perceivers spontaneously draw upon to make such inferences? Here, we test 4 major theories of person perception, and 1 synthetic theory that combines their features, to determine whether the dimensions of such theories can serve as bases for describing patterns of neural activity during mentalizing. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants made social judgments about well-known public figur…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AG032780

  NIH · $1.1M · 2014

• The Neural Basis of Stereotypic Thinking

  NSF · $610k · 2007–2011

• CRCNS Data Sharing: An open data repository for cognitive neuroscience: The Open fMRI Project

  NSF · $102k · 2011–2014

Frequent coauthors

• C. Neil Macrae

  University of Aberdeen

  66 shared

• Mahzarin R. Banaji

  Harvard University

  39 shared

• Louise F. Pendry

  University of Exeter

  16 shared

• Jamil Zaki

  Stanford University

  12 shared

• Anthony D. Wagner

  Stanford University

  10 shared

• Jasmin Cloutier

  University of Delaware

  10 shared

• Daniel L. Schacter

  10 shared

• Diana Tamir

  Princeton University

  9 shared

Labs

• Jason P. Mitchell LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  Harvard University

  2005

• B.A., Psychology

  University of California, Berkeley

  1999

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• Randy L. Bucknerh-268
• Matthew K. Nockh-126