What Wikipedia Can't Tell You About Halo Effect ?

When we meet a person for the first time we undoubtedly draw a conclusion about them, we make a judgement on what type of person we think they are and possibly subconsciously we decide whether we like them or not.

But is it possible that one aspect of their personality, one trait or detail can affect how we perceive them. Would we judge a generally good person as bad because of their views on religion or a joke that's in bad taste or how much money they have and is the reverse true how good is our judgement really.

Halo effect is actually Psychology cognitive bias in which our first impression of a person influences our judgement to that person’s character.

It is basically judging a person by its looks and attractiveness . The Halo metaphor is used because characteristics like attractiveness effects our perception.

For example, we might think attractive person as more smart and intelligent or kind and a less attractive person to be sloppy. While the truth may be completely opposite.

We tend to think the ones who are beautiful are also friendly and outgoing whereas the less attractive are shy and reserved.

This is not that surprising as we think of stories of our childhood, we depict heroes as incredibly beautiful and charming while the villains are ugly and distorted.

The halo effect was first researched in 1920 by the psychologist Edward Thorndike when he asked his commanding officers to evaluate their soldiers in terms of their physical qualities and as well as emotional and social qualities even without speaking to them.

Edward Thorndike found that the soldiers who were taller and had beautiful traits and they were also described as more intelligent. They were also thought to  have a better character and leadership skills.

So the first image actually matters a lot than we can imagine.  Another classic example would be regarding the politicians who we tend to believe in trust to make good decisions simply because they look good on posters and their smiles seems kind and warm.

However, the halo effect doesn't have only good sights, it even has bad sights. Attractive people also sometimes tend to be seen as narcissistic childish and many superficial several studies have found that this affects the way teachers judge their students having a tendency to give higher grades to those who are well behaved in the class.

Assuming that they are bright and engaged before they even read their papers. Students also judge their teachers based on how they dress, how they talk and how they carry themselves.The teacher well dressed is more likeable and is considered as attractive.

Other study even found that jurors were less likely to believe that attractive people could be guilty of crimes. So the halo effect is attributing personal qualities to people we have only seen based on their outer look.

This is how we sometimes decide if we like someone or not based on the first impression and this often happens unconsciously because we develop this bias simply based on their outer personality and attractiveness .

Another example can be of tinder, users on tinder choose someone just on halo effect. You see few pictures of someone and then read a basic bio and decide if the person is a good person or not.

In reality who knows if the person with just the right qualities was the one that you swiped left. In other words the halo effect can also mean like judging a book by its cover.

In any work environment the halo effect is most likely to appear when a supervisor has to evaluate the performance of an employee. The supervisor might only see one characteristic of that employee such as dedication or any outer personality and tend to give him a higher performance rating than he would if he was objective.

Even though the employee is truly dedicated to his job, his lack of attention leads him to often make big mistakes. Others struggle to make up after slowing down the performance of the entire team.

Many job applicants also feel the impact of the halo effect when searching for the perfect employee. If a prospective employer sees the applicant as attractive this increases the chances that they will think of the candidate as more intelligent and qualified.

Further research has discovered that the halo effect doesn't apply for only people. It also affects the way we think of organizations and brands. After all an image is our main pivot when deciding how to dress, where to eat or where things to buy.

Whenever you see a nice cozy restaurant, you automatically assume they have great food. Whenever you see a brand using celebrities for advertising , you want to buy their products to feel like a celebrity. You don't pay for the product you pay for the brand speculating the halo effect.

Another good example is with smoking that used to be advertised using sexy women and rich men shown off as being glamorous or hot.

Even though those kinds of commercials are banned, today's teenagers still smoke because they think it's cool and then it gives them a nice image. Even a company's performance is measured through the halo effect.

When a company is growing and successful, we tend to think they have ground breaking strategies great employees a visionary CEO and a great work environment.

When performance starts to drop we tend to think there are breaches and management people are unmotivated stuff like that

So marketers take great advantage of the halo effect when trying to sell products and services and you should too if you're trying to sell yourself

If they hire a particular celebrity to endorse a particular item our positive view of that celebrity will automatically be transferred on the product itself Basically thinking if they use it then it must be good.

So what can we do with this information try to always be the best version of ourselves and avoid judging people based on the first impression. This is really hard though because your brain does it without you even thinking.

Real life shows us that less attractive people are actually more likely to become smarter to study harder and to be better people in general because they have to make up for their lack of physical beauty .

I've met countless of these kinds of examples where people with lesser looks are actually 10 times kinder than more attractive people.

Life is all about balance and we should try to know people as they are give time to really discover what they're all about instead of judging them by the colour of their skin and on the brand of their jeans.

When it comes to any type products we could easily research them online by checking customer reviews who have used the same product before or from people who have tried them to see if they're really that good just like Amazon reviews.

Do you have to say anything abut the halo effect ? Or if you have ever used this, please feel free to comment below.

Hope you liked this article.