Breaking Bad Bias

Imagine this.

You’ve just won tickets to see your favorite musical artist in concert this weekend! And, even better, you won a backstage pass to meet them in person! You’ve loved their music for years, and you’re so excited to get the chance to talk to them.

Saturday night arrives and you’re next in line! You greet them with a smile, hand them a CD to sign, and start telling them how you’re such a fan of their music. But before you can finish, they interrupt you and call, “Next!”

How could they be so rude? You were sure they would be great! After all, you’ve always admired their music.

Why were you so caught off guard? You had never met them before. You had no reason to assume they would be friendly. For all you knew, they could be a real jerk! So why did you think they would be so great? One reason: the halo effect. The halo effect is a cognitive bias that leads us to generalize positive feelings we have about a person to many other aspects of that person. Or put differently, if your general overall impression of a person is positive, it’s likely that that positive feeling will bleed over to other aspects of that person. In the meet-and-greet scenario, you took your positive feelings about your favorite artist as a musician specifically and made a generalization about them as a person!

Psychologist Edward Thorndyke is believed to have coined the term halo effect in 1920. It first appeared in a paper he wrote in 1920 called The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings. His paper described a study he conducted with commanding officers in the military and how they rated their subordinates on various qualities like leadership, physical appearance, intelligence, loyalty, and dependability. He noted ratings of these qualities were highly intercorrelated. Basically the traits being rated were too related to one another than would be expected by chance. Before the study, Thorndyke didn’t believe a characteristic like physical appearance would be related to characteristics like dependability or loyalty. In his mind, there should have been little if any correlation at all between these traits. He concluded that the officer's ratings of specific traits were highly influenced by a general feeling of like or dislike for the subordinate.

Now let’s jump into a workplace example of the halo effect.

You are the manager of a successful software development company. Every morning, you pass through the office on the way to grab your morning cup of coffee, and every day one particular employee says hello and asks you about your day, let’s call them Ben. Ben works in the accounting department and he’s always up for taking on new challenges. On top of that, he always has a big smile on his face and seems to have a genuine care for everyone in the office. Last year, he even organized a surprise brownie sundae party for your birthday in the breakroom. What an all around great guy!

Fast forward to a few weeks later. You come to find out that there have been some discrepancies in the company books. They’re mostly small, too small to notice at first, but they add up to a huge deficit in your profit margins. This is, of course, distressing news!

After some investigation, you’re able to track the issue back to Ben. You think to yourself, “That’s strange. He must have an explanation! Ben’s such a nice guy, there’s no way he could be involved in something like this. He’s always so nice and enthusiastic!”

But stop and consider! You’re might be falling into the trap of the halo effect! You’re allowing your positive feelings to shape your overall perspective. Ben has always been friendly around the office, so you consider him to be an all around good and ethical person. But friendly doesn’t necessarily mean ethical. Just because someone has one or even a few good qualities, it doesn’t mean they are halo worthy. We’re all only human after all!

The moral of the story here isn’t to distrust the people around you, but rather, it’s to remember to look at all the facts before making a judgement or a decision about someone. Before you make a move, ask yourself, have I considered the complete picture? Or am I making an overall judgement based on one positive quality?

Engaging mindfully means taking the time to slow down, reflect and consider.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Have I considered the complete picture?
• What do I believe to be true about this person or organization?
• What do I know to be true about this person or organization?
• Which of my beliefs can I validate with what I know?
• Am I making an overall judgement based on one positive quality?

?And remember to always be less certain and more curious!