halo effect

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The halo effect refers to a cognitive bias whereby the perception of a particular trait is influenced by the perception of the former traits in a sequence of interpretations.

Edward L. Thorndike was the first to support the halo effect with empirical research. In a psychology study published in 1920, Thorndike asked commanding officers to rate their soldiers; Thorndike found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits. People seem not to think of other individuals in mixed terms; instead we seem to see each person as roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement.

A study by Solomon Asch suggests that attractiveness is a central trait, so we presume all the other traits of an attractive person are just as attractive and sought after.

The halo effect is involved in Harold Kelley's implicit personality theory, where the first traits we recognize in other people influence our interpretation and perception of later ones because of our expectations. Attractive people are often judged as having a more desirable personality and more skills than someone of average appearance. Thus, we see that celebrities are used to endorse products that they have no actual expertise in evaluating, and with which they may not even have any prior affiliation.

The term is commonly used in human resources recruitment. It refers to the risk of an interviewer noticing a positive trait in an interviewee and as a result, paying less attention to their negative traits (or vice versa).

Reverse Halo Effect

The iPod has had positive effects on perceptions of Apple's other products

A corollary to the halo effect is the reverse halo effect where individuals, brands or other things are judged to have a single undesirable trait are subsequently judged to have many poor traits, allowing a single weak point or negative trait to influence others' perception of the person, brand or other thing in general.^[1][2] This is also called the "devil effect."^[3]

As a super model

In brand marketing, a halo effect is one where the perceived positive features of a particular item extend to a broader brand. It has been used to describe how the iPod has had positive effects on perceptions of Apple's other products.^[4] The term is also widely used in the automotive industry, where a manufacturer may produce an exceptional halo vehicle in order to promote sales of an entire marque. Modern cars often described as halo vehicles include the Dodge Viper, Ford GT, and Acura NSX.

Unconscious Judgments

In the 1970s, the social psychologist Richard Nisbett demonstrated that even if we were told that our judgments have been affected by the halo effect, we may have no awareness of when the halo effect influences us.^[5]

See also

Psychology portal

• Affect heuristic
• Association fallacy
• Attribute substitution
• Confirmation bias
• List of cognitive biases

Notes

Further reading

• Nisbett, Richard E.; Timothy D. Wilson (1977). "The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association) 35 (4): 250-256. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.35.4.250. ISSN 1939-1315. 
• Stuart Sutherland (2007). Irrationality Second Edition (First Edition 1994) Pinter & Martin. ISBN 978-1905177073
• Jeremy Dean (2007). "The Halo Effect: When Your Own Mind is a Mystery" PsyBlog

References

• Asch, S. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 258-290
• Thorndike, E. L. (1920). A constant error on psychological rating. Journal of Applied Psychology, IV, 25-29
• Kelly, G. A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs (Vols. 1 and 2). New York: Norton.