What Is the Halo Effect?

We all been aghast or wowed by someone else, either by their looks or what they talk about, we become mesmerized by who they are, and at that moment, we tend to judge what the person is, and our expectations are high of them like we place them in a pedestal to be admired and to admit no wrong. That is the halo effect, a cognitive bias we have about other people.

The halo effect is also something referred to as the «physical attractiveness stereotype» and the «what is beautiful is also good» principle, for example: if someone is nice we tend to exaggerate another quality that ads it to smart, «He or she is nice and smart». Our perceptions of a single trait of one person can carry over to how people perceive other aspects of that person, we tend to do that to celebrities.

Psychologist Edward Thorndike realized that there was a «The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings» he asked commanding officers in the military to evaluate a variety of qualities in their subordinate soldiers. These characteristics included such things as leadership, physical appearance, intelligence, loyalty, and dependability.

After seeing the results, the officers were biased by the sight of the others, that is how researchers have found that attractiveness is one factor that can play a role, a determining one.

Let’s think about Susan Boyle, the contender at the «UK got talent» show where people participate to become a celebrity showing the world their talent. When she presented herself, she seemed so out of place, and we judged her as unable to do things right or impress us in a positive way. But when she sang, oh boy! a beautiful voice came out of nowhere and enchanted the whole audience and later won the contest. She contradicted this principle.

We know we cannot judge others by what they look like, we even have a saying «never judge a book by its cover», but that is a natural tendency we need to fight all the time.