MELBOURNE: When meeting someone for the first time, many of us make instant judgements about their personality or their interests based on how they look and act. And now new research claims these judgements are made before we have even had time to form and gather our thoughts. Researchers from Melbourne claim they can predict how someone feels when looking at an image from their brain waves - even when the participants weren’t conscious of this judgement. The findings are particularly useful in establishing why and how people make impulsive decisions, and how in control of these decisions they are. The research was carried out by lead authors Dr Stefan Bode, from the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and Dr Carsten Murawski from the University of Melbourne Department of Finance.–dm