THE "HALO EFFECT"

Hey guys,

I hope you are enjoying your sunny freezing Sunday :) keep yourself warm, grab a cup of tea/coffee and enjoy reading. Have you ever heard about the "Halo effect"? Have you ever thought how we make our decision? Are we influenced by others? Are we influenced by stereotypes? Let's see.

Yesterday I went out with my boy and saw some friends for lunch. The waitress was smiling and so polite. Immediately I asked for her name, I always do that as I like to create a warm relationship with them. We had a great time and she was helpful, poor girl. The restaurant was packed but she never stopped smiling. Now, if she was moody then my whole lunch experience would have been completely different.

"Physical appearance is often a major part of the halo effect. People who are considered attractive tend to be rated higher on other positive traits as well.In many experiments they say that personal attractiveness can gain more positive comments from people but in my case I would say smile and kindness are the most attractive norms." from the very well mind article.

Keep smiling and life will smile back at you.

"Several different studies have found that when we rate people as good-looking, we also tend to believe that they have positive personality traits and that they are more intelligent.3?One study even found that jurors were less likely to believe that attractive people were guilty of criminal behavior."

However, this attractiveness stereotype can also be a double-edged sword. Other studies have found that while people are more likely to ascribe a host of positive qualities to attractive people, they are also more likely to believe that good-looking individuals are vain, dishonest, and likely to use their attractiveness to manipulate others        

The Halo Effect Experiment, 1977

"University of Michigan professors?RICHARD NISBETT AND TIMOTHY WILSON ?were interested in following up a study from 50 years earlier on a concept known as the?HALO EFFECT . In the 1920s, American psychologist?EDWARD THORNDIKE ?researched a phenomenon in the U.S. military that showed cognitive bias. This is an error in how we think that affects how we perceive people and make judgements and decisions based on those perceptions.

In 1977, Nisbett and Wilson tested the halo effect using 118 college students (62 males, 56 females). Students were divided into two groups and were asked to evaluate a male Belgian teacher who spoke English with a heavy accent. Participants were shown one of two videotaped interviews with the teacher on a television monitor. The first interview showed the teacher interacting cordially with students, and the second interview showed the teacher behaving inhospitably. The subjects were then asked to rate the teacher’s physical appearance, mannerisms, and accent on an eight-point scale from appealing to irritating.

Nisbett and Wilson found that on physical appearance alone, 70 percent of the subjects rated the teacher as appealing when he was being respectful and irritating when he was cold. When the teacher was rude, 80 percent of the subjects rated his accent as irritating, as compared to nearly 50 percent when he was being kind.

The updated study on the halo effect shows that cognitive bias isn’t exclusive to a military environment. Cognitive bias can get in the way of making the correct decision, whether it’s during a job interview or deciding whether to buy a product that’s been endorsed by a celebrity we admire."

In the Workplace

There are a number of ways that the halo effect can influence perceptions of others in work settings. For example, experts suggest that the halo effect is one of the most common biases affecting performance appraisals and reviews. Supervisors may rate subordinates based on the perception of a single characteristic rather than the whole of their performance and contribution. For example, a worker's enthusiasm or positive attitude may overshadow their lack of knowledge or skill, causing co-workers to rate them more highly than their actual performance justifies.

Parts of this article has been inspired by the website verywell.mind and by Kendra Cherry. Thank you for the great article!

In my personal experience when I was working to a company my manager was biased towards me because he wanted to be the most likable person and it so happened that the CEO liked me aswell. The manager felt threatened although there was not any threat as he was my superior. That influenced his decisions and behavior and the company's decisions in the end. So, managers and the management in general should be very careful how they make their decisions. You might lose capable employees because someone doesn't really like them, maybe they don't like the way they dress, the way they smile or that they might have an opinion.

The halo effect can also have an impact on income. A study published in the?Journal of Economic Psychology?found that, on average, attractive food servers earned approximately $1,200 more per year in tips than their unattractive counterparts.

Another study found that physical attractiveness has a positive effect not only on a person's self-confidence but also on their overall income and financial well-being.

Now that you are aware of the "Halo effect" that doesn't mean even if you try that we won't be influenced by the stereotypes or what is more attractive to us, but you can be more aware of your decisions. Don't hire or fire someone based on the first impression, first ask yourself if that is a genuine decision or am I influenced by other factors that are not related to his/her abilities?

Last but not least, since my kids were little I was always telling them that the way we dress it shows to the world of who we are, the way we speak tells the world what our personality is. I am not saying that you have to follow the crowd but you must be aware of what message you want to send out there.

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Thank you

Nadia