Social perception is central to social psychology. The traits, roles, emotions and intentions that we perceive in others are not only interesting in their own right but also affect other social psychological phenomena such as social influence, aggression, social interaction and group processes. Leslie Zebrowitz argues that the "mainstream" approach to social perception is a cognitive one which focuses primarily on the processes of perceiving people. She aims to redress the imbalance by giving greater emphasis to the content of social perceptions, the stimulus information on which they are based, and to the functions which they serve. She considers the strengths and weaknesses in existing theory and research and explores the possiblities in an ecological theory of social perception.