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Abstract
Like all perception, social perception reflects evolutionary pressures. In encounters
with conspecifics, social animals must determine, immediately, whether the "other"
is friend or foe (i.e. intends good or ill) and, then, whether the "other" has the
ability to enact those intentions. New data confirm these two universal dimensions
of social cognition: warmth and competence. Promoting survival, these dimensions provide
fundamental social structural answers about competition and status. People perceived
as warm and competent elicit uniformly positive emotions and behavior, whereas those
perceived as lacking warmth and competence elicit uniform negativity. People classified
as high on one dimension and low on the other elicit predictable, ambivalent affective
and behavioral reactions. These universal dimensions explain both interpersonal and
intergroup social cognition.