Abstract: Embodiment theory, a new approach to explore how human-being acquires and represents world knowledge, has been attached much attention and gradually flourished in the fields of cognitive psychology, social cognition and social psychology. The present article reviewed the origin and development of embodiment theory, and mainly focused on applying embodiment paradigms on social cognition, including attitude, social perception and emotion. And we pointed out the possible practical problems in the implementation of embodiment researches in social cognition. We further proposed the possibility of integrating other disciplines (e.g., neuroscience and cross-culture psychology) to shed light on the future directions of embodiment studies in social cognition.

Key words: embodiment, social cognition, attitude, social perspective, emotion