Halo effect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Halo effect refers to the cognitive bias in which the assessment of an individual quality serves to influence and bias the judgment of other qualities. Said another way, a person who is good at “X” is often deemed to be good at “Y” even if the two items are not related. Attractive people are often judged as having a more desirable personality and more skills than someone of average appearance. Celebrities are used to endorse products that they have no expertise in evaluating.
When commanding officers were asked to rate their soldiers in an early psychology experiment conducted by Edward L. Thorndike, he found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits.[1] People seem to rarely think of each other in mixed terms; instead we seem to see them as universally roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement. Solomon Asch also performed research in this area. The halo effect may be involved with the theory of cognitive dissonance. [2]
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 Computer's other products. 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.
A corollary to the halo effect is the "devil effect" (or "horns effect"), where individuals 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 in general. [3]
[edit] See also
Halo Effect is also a term used in HR recruitment. While interviewing a person, you might be influenced by one of his attributes and ignore his/her other weaknesses. Solomon Asch has also done a study about central traits and his findings suggest that attractiveness is a central trait, so we presume all the other traits of an attractive person are just as attractive and sought after.
Individuals when discovering that they are in the presence of authority figures, often suddenly exhibit their best behavior. As if they have projected a halo over their heads as seen in old Warner Brothers cartoons, presumably in a effort to avoid being accosted by said authority figure.
[edit] 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, vol. IV, 25-29
