The halo effect is a cognitive bias that causes people’s impression of one aspect of something to influence their impression of other aspects of it. It’s widely prevalent, and can influence both the way that we perceive others, as well as how we perceive ourselves. Here are examples of how it affects people and what you can do in order to account for its influence.
Examples of the halo effect
In a 1946 study by Solomon Asch, a person was presented with two descriptions of a person: A: intelligent-industrious-impulsive-impulsive-critical, impulsive, industryrious-intelligent
- B: envious-stubborn-critical-impressing-intimidating-influential
- The difference in attractiveness led to a significant difference in how they perceived the person being described
- An example of this is a study that showed that what people think about a woman’s personality is influenced by how much she weighs
- When evaluating potential partners for political discussion, people viewed more attractive prospects as more knowledgeable and persuasive
Origin of the Halo Effect
The halo effect is attributed to renowned American psychologist Edward Thorndike, who first wrote about it in his 1920 paper ‘A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings’.
- When army officers were rated by their superiors based on their physical qualities, intelligence, leadership ability, and personal character, the resulting ratings were strongly and evenly correlated with one another despite explicit instructions to rate these traits independently from one another.
- This suggests that a halo of general merit is extended to influence the rating for the special ability, or vice versa.
Why people experience the halo effect
Once you form an initial impression of someone or something, you often try to prove that that impression is right
- This gives the person who formed that impression a positive feeling of accomplishment
- Helps avoid the negative feeling associated with cognitive dissonance
- Focusing on a certain trait when judging others reduces your cognitive load
- It also serves as a useful heuristic in some situations
- When we process information we often use mental shortcuts that can be useful when we need to make decisions quickly
The halo effect in marketing
This is mentioned with regard to its influence on how we perceive other people.
- It can also affect the way we judge other things, such as products and companies.
- If you have a positive impression of a certain brand, you are more likely to buy products from that brand, even if the positive impression is not directly related to the product at hand.
The halo effect and your opinion of others
Just because someone has a single positive trait (e.g. physical attractiveness) does not mean you should immediately form a positive impression of them
- Cognitive debiasing techniques to reduce the likelihood of experiencing halo effects include slowing down your reasoning process and trying to come up with two possible impressions of people when you first meet them
The horns effect
A cognitive bias which causes our negative impression of someone or something in one domain to influence our impression of them in other domains
- In the context of consumer products, the horns effect could mean that if you don’t like the way a certain product looks, you might erroneously assume that the product will have poor performance, even though that’s not necessarily the case
Conclusion
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that causes people’s impression of one aspect of something to influence their impression of other aspects of it.
- For example, if people think someone is attractive, they may assume that they have a more interesting personality, and vice-versa.
The halo effect and other people’s opinion of you
It’s important to keep in mind that it can influence how other people view you and the things that you create.
- You can take advantage of this by realizing that your traits and behaviors in one area influence how others people perceive you in other areas, as well as how they perceive you overall.
Variability in the Halo Effect
The halo effect can influence people’s opinions in a variety of situations
- It’s important to keep in mind that it doesn’t always play a role in people’s thinking, and furthermore, that the way in which it influences people’s thinking isn’t always clear.
