Alexander Todorov

Biography

Alexander Todorov studies perception, judgment, and decision making. As an alternative to standard theory-driven experiments to study perception and judgment, Todorov’s lab pioneered data-driven computational methods. These methods model and visualize the perceptual basis of judgments (e.g., what makes an object beautiful) without prior assumptions, and can be used as a discovery tool. Building on this past work, current research uses generative AI to model individual human preferences. Another line of research is on the incompleteness of human statistical intuitions and the conditions under which these intuitions impair decision making (e.g., dealing with outcomes generated by chance processes).

Todorov’s research has appeared in a variety of publications, including Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behavior, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Vision, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.  Media coverage of his research has spanned internationally.  Amongst the outlets in the US that have covered his research are PBS, NBC Today Show, NPR, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has been awarded the 2008 SAGE Young Scholar Award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the 2019 Career Trajectory Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. His most recent book publication is Face Value: The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions. Prior to joining Booth in 2020, Todorov was a professor of psychology at Princeton University for 18 years. He was also a visiting professor at Radboud University, the Netherlands, and a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City, and the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of Bologna, Italy.

Todorov earned a PhD from New York University in 2002.  Additionally, he holds a Research MA from the New School for Social Research, and a BA from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia, Bulgaria. During his studies, he was a visiting researcher in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University.

Academic Areas

• Behavioral Science