Transcription
The halo effect is known in psychology as a cognitive bias in which our first impression of a person influences our judgment of that person's character. It's basically judging by appearance, and the attractiveness of one person affects how we view them holistically. The halo metaphor is used because one characteristic, like attractiveness, affects our perception the most when considering other traits. For example, we might think of an attractive person as more intelligent or kind. We might think of a less attractive person to be sloppy, not so reliable, or maybe not even intelligent.
Also, the qualities we superficially attribute to the attractive or unattractive are closely linked to social interactions. We tend to think that those who are beautiful are also friendly and outgoing, while the less attractive are shy and reserved. This isn't too much surprise, though. When we think of stories from our childhood, we depict heroes as incredibly beautiful and charming, while the villains were ugly and distorted. Just think of Beauty and the Beast or Prince Charming in Cinderella.
The halo effect was first researched in 1920 by the psychologist Edward Thorndike. When he asked commanding officers to evaluate their soldiers in terms of their physical qualities as well as emotional and social qualities, even without speaking to them, Thorndike found that the soldiers who were taller and had beautiful traits were also described as more intelligent, having a better character, and leadership skills. So a first image actually affects the whole more than we can imagine.
Another classic example would be regarding politicians who we tend to believe in, trust to make good decisions, simply because they look good on billboards and their smiles seem kind and warm. However, the halo effect doesn't have only good sights; attractive people also tend to be seen as narcissistic, childish, and 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, 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. If they think of a teacher as warm and friendly, they're more likely to rate them as attractive and likeable. One 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 looks. 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 attractiveness. The best example is with Tinder users; they base their choice is just on the halo effect. You see a few pictures of someone and read a basic bio and decide if they're a good person or not, and who knows if the person with just the right qualities was the one that you swiped left on. In other words, the halo effect is judging a book by its cover.
In the work environment, the halo effect is most likely to appear when a supervisor has to evaluate the performance of a subordinate employee. The supervisor might only see one characteristic of that employee, such as dedication, and tends to give him a higher performance rating than he would if he was objective and saw that, even though the employee is truly dedicated to his job, his lack of attention leads him to often make big mistakes the others struggle to make up after, slowing down the performance of the entire team. 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 them as more intelligent and qualified. Pretty powerful stuff, guys.
Further research has shown that the halo effect doesn't apply for only people; it affects the way we think of organizations and brands. After all, an image is our main pivot when deciding where to eat, what to wear, and what things to buy. You see a nice cozy restaurant; you automatically assume they have great food. You see a brand using celebrities for advertising; you want to buy their products to feel like a celebrity. The expression "you don't pay for the product, you pay for the brand" is speculating the halo, the image that particular brand has. Another good example is with smoking that used to be advertised using sexy women and rich men shown off as being glamorous or hot, and now, 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 groundbreaking strategies, great employees, a visionary CEO, and a great work environment. When performance starts to drop, we tend to think there are breaches in 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, 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 color of their skin and on the brand of their jeans.
When it comes to products, we could research them before buying; we can read reviews from people who have tried them to see if they're really that good, just like Amazon reviews. Before I end this video, I want to give you guys one more tip: if you want to use the halo effect to your advantage, to get people to like you, specifically getting girls to like you if you're a guy, I created an entire course called "The Psychology of Attraction." The halo effect is just one little part of it; there are tons of other psychological tactics, hacks, and tricks that you can use to increase your attractiveness. I went through and read over 40 books on this topic and eight psychology textbooks, so I know a thing or two about getting people to like you without them knowing that they like you. You can check it out with a huge coupon link in the description below or go to psychologyofattraction.com. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you learned something. Until next time.