Halo Effect / Halo Error

Hey guys, how are you?

Hope you all are doing well. Today we are studying “Halo Effect”. You might have heard about it a lot of people talk about it and often it is talked about in motivation videos and movies etc. It is usually taught in subjects which deals with the individuals such as HRM.

So what is halo effect?

It is a kind of cognitive bias in which an individual’s overall impression of a person effects how they feel and think about the character of that person. Basically the overall impression of a person is impacting the evaluation of other traits of that person. An example of this can the overall impression of celebrities. Since they are perceived as successful, attractive and often like-able people tend to see them as kind, intelligent and funny.

It is basically the physical attractiveness stereotype or “what is beautiful is good” principle. It is referring to the habitual tendency of individuals for rating attractive individuals more favorably for their personality traits than the ones who are less attractive.

For instance when a teacher sees a well-behaved student she might assume that this student is also bright and engaged before the objective evaluations and it can impact the rating of the student as well as his grades.

Another example an employee can be very enthusiastic and punctual but he isn’t that good at his work however because of his two good traits their supervisor will assume them as the best employees.

This effect/ error isn’t limited to one person. It is also called Halo error since it is hindering the judgment of the individual. A job applicant can also be impacted by this effect and it is why they are told to dress properly and behave properly on the interview day.

Marketers are also using this technique for selling their products or services. They often get endorsements from celebrities to make you believe in the product/service.