October 19, 2017: Alexander Todorov

(Princeton University)

https://psych.princeton.edu/person/alexander-todorov

Face Value: The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions

People form instantaneous impressions from faces and agree on these impressions. These impressions are also consequential, predicting important outcomes ranging from sentencing decisions to political elections. But what determines these impressions? In the first systematic study of first impressions in psychology, Secord and his colleagues noted that “the conventional ‘elementalizing’ used by psychologists in seeking to explain their data is simply inappropriate.” In the last 10 years, we have introduced data-driven computational methods that allow us to visualize the configurations of face features leading to specific impressions such as trustworthiness. Building on these methods and using novel techniques to mask faces, we can visualize not only the face configurations important for specific impressions but also those that spontaneously emerge in consciousness. We can also use these methods to visualize neural responses. Currently, we are applying the methods to intracranially recorded EEG in patients undergoing treatment for epilepsy. Perceptual determinants, however, are insufficient to account for the full content of impressions. One’s learning history of faces is another important determinant of impressions. These types of learning include statistical learning of the distribution (and typicality) of faces and idiosyncratic learning based on familiar faces. These determinants of impressions account for their compelling force without the need to posit that they are accurate. In fact, the evidence for accuracy of first impressions is extremely weak.