Alexander Todorov

Alexander Todorov
Human Neuroscience Human Neuroscience

Professor of Psychology

Associated faculty member of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Woodrow Wilson School
Ph.D., New York University, 2002
Research: Cognitive and neural mechanisms of social perception and social cognition with a particular emphasis on the social dimensions of face perception.
Areas of Research: Social Cognition and Person Perception.
atodorov@princeton.edu
Research Lab
PDF icon alexander-todorov-cv-dec-2014.pdf
609-258-7463
323 Peretsman-Scully Hall

Research Focus

The primary focus of research in our lab is on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of social perception and social cognition with a particular emphasis on the social dimensions of face perception. Our approach is multidisciplinary. We use a variety of methods from behavioral and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments to computational modeling. The span of our research ranges from the social consequences of rapid, initial person impressions to the basic neural mechanisms underlying such impressions. Current major areas of research include computational modeling of social perception of faces, identifying brain networks involved in representing other people, and mechanisms of updating person representations.

Selected Publications

  • Todorov, A., Olivola, C. Y., Dotsch, R., & Mende-Siedlecki, P. (2015). Social attributions from faces: Determinants, consequences, accuracy, and functional significance. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 519-545. PDF
  • Mende-Siedlecki, P., & Todorov, A. (2014). The role of the amygdala in face processing. In M. Gazzaniga & G. R. Mangun (Eds.), The Cognitive Neurosciences V (pp. 767-776). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Mende-Siedlecki, P., Baron, S. G., & Todorov, A. (2013). Diagnostic value underlies asymmetric updating of impressions in the morality and ability domains. Journal of Neuroscience, 33, 19406-19415. PDF
  • Mende-Siedlecki, P. M., Verosky, S. C., Turk-Browne, N. B., & Todorov, A. (2013). Robust selectivity for faces in the human amygdala in the absence of expressions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 2086-2106. PDF
  • Todorov, A., Dotsch, R., Porter, J. M., Oosterhof, N. N., & Falvello, V. B. (2013). Validation of data-driven computational models of social perception of faces. Emotion, 13, 724-738. PDF
  • Aviezer, H., Trope, Y., & Todorov, A. (2012). Body cues, not facial expressions, discriminate between intense positive and negative emotions. Science, 338, 1225-1229. PDF
  • Said, C. P., Dotsch, R., & Todorov, A. (2010). The amygdala and FFA track both social and non-social face dimensions. Neuropsychologia, 48, 3596-3605. PDF
  • Oosterhof, N. N., & Todorov, A. (2008). The functional basis of face evaluation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 105, 11087-11092. PDF

View complete list of Publications.