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Faces and first impressions

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Rob And I'm Rob. Today we're talking about  first impressions  – and how they're often wrong. Neil So let's start with the term  first impression  – it's the idea or opinion you have about someone after meeting them for only a short time. Rob It's very natural to make a quick judgement about someone based on their appearance or facial expression.  Neil We're going to be hearing about the research of Professor Alexander Todorov from Princeton University in the US. First, a question: how long does he say it takes to form an impression about someone's face? Is it... a) under one second b) one second c) six seconds Rob I'll go for b) one second. Neil Well, we'll find out if you're right or not at the end of the programme. Rob So – Alexander Todorov has been researching our impressions. His tests asked people to decide whether they thought faces were dominant, competent,  trustworthy  or  extroverted . Neil Let...