The list of human foibles is long. The 2015 s+b article “Beyond Bias” lists 24 of the most common biases, including blind spots, the illusion of control, and the concept of sunk costs.
Since the early 2000s, Princeton University psychology professor Alexander Todorov has been studying one of those long-standing human foibles: the first impression.
In his new book, Face Value, Todorov pulls together all he’s learned about first impressions. At first glance — and upon a careful reading — it makes for a fascinating and thorough examination of the subject.
Todorov’s expansive tour includes the history of physiognomy (the dubious science of predicting character from physical appearance) and a survey of modern first-impression research, much of which Todorov has conducted in his Social Perceptions Lab at Princeton.
His conclusion: We find judging others based on a single glance irresistible, but the judgments we reach are usually wrong.
Todorov reports that people can form a first impression from a person’s face in as little as 30 to 40 milliseconds. That’s less time than it takes to say “milliseconds.” Moreover, we start forming first impressions as infants.
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