What is the Halo Effect?

The cognitive biases are part of the psychological phenomena most studied from the cognitive sciences and most taken into account in the Marketing Psychology.

They are evidence that human beings are tremendously prone not to interpret reality based on rational analysis, calm and based on valid reasoning from the point of view of logic. Among these cognitive biases, one of the best known is the halo effect, which explains some of the irrational aspects that make us judge a person, a product or a place more positively or more negatively.

• Related article: "The 10 most important psychological effects"

What is the Halo Effect?

The halo effect is a cognitive bias by which we tend to make our opinion and global assessment of a person, organization, product or brand arises from the way in which we judge and value specific properties and characteristics of that person, organization, product or brand. The term is based on the idea that if we clearly identify a positive aspect in someone who has not yet we know well, that fact increases the chances that in general we see that person with good eyes.

Thus, the halo effect is based on the idea that we show a propensity to use our assessment of a very specific characteristic of something or someone to "manufacture" from it a global assessment of that person, organization or abstract element: we extend our opinion of that property to the entire element that we are judging and we make this impression interfere with the way we interpret many other properties of the element.

In short, the halo effect is a tendency to make our impressions and opinions about certain characteristics of a subject or object depend on the impression that other features.

The history of this cognitive bias

The American Psychologist Edward thorndike He was the first to name the halo effect after him and to provide empirical evidence that would serve to demonstrate its existence. He did it in 1920, when through an article called A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings, in which he showed the results of an experiment carried out with the military. This research was relatively straightforward; A number of officers were asked to rate certain qualities of various of his subordinates.

From these data, Thorndike saw that the way in which a specific characteristic was valued was highly correlated with the valuation made of the rest of the characteristics. People who obtained negative scores on one of their characteristics tended to have negative scores on the rest of aspects, and those that were valued positively in a specific aspect tended to be valued positively in all the rest.

The Halo Effect and the famous

The halo effect is noticeable in our day to day, for example, in the way we perceive famous people linked to major labels, the most recognized sports or Hollywood cinema.

These are people whose public image has been painstakingly carved by marketing agencies and advertising and which we hardly know much about (after all, we don't usually deal with directly). However, this does not prevent, for example, that many people are considered as opinion leaders, great thinkers whose famous phrases They are enthusiastically applauded and, in general, people whose opinion on subjects far removed from their profession is usually highly valued.

This fact, by the way, is used many times in marketing and advertising.

Marketing takes advantage of this psychological effect

The halo effect is also noticeable in those advertising campaigns in which a famous person is used to advertise a product or service. The inclusion of him in these advertising pieces does not tell us much about the characteristics and functionalities of the coffee maker that is tries to sell us, or about the advantages of the insurance company that is advertised, and yet its presence affects us subtly. After all, if an organization is willing to spend money hiring or a recognized character, it is because doing so can have objective results in sales.

Specifically, what is tried is that the values ​​and feelings associated with the famous or famous in question are extended to the image of the product, thus creating a "halo" of positive evaluations that has its origin in what we think of the celebrity. The branding has in the halo effect a means to make the image of a brand revitalized simply by using a famous face.

The power of the first impression

But the halo effect is beyond large companies: influences the way in which we can judge anyone we meet. This has a lot to do with the first impression that is made, something that is known to have a great impact on the image of others that we create in our imagination.

If during the first seconds of conversation with a person he or she is excessively nervous and insecure, even for less related factors with his way of being that with what happens to him at that particular moment (for example, because he is about to undergo an important exam), this characteristic will catch our attention and from that moment on, the first impression will become an important factor in the way in which we value this individual.

In summary

The halo effect is a sign that the human brain he is willing to fill information gaps with the little data that are available in order to make the uncertainty disappear. If we can judge someone we do not know by the first impression they have made on us, by their profession or by their aesthetic, we do not have to consider the nuances of his personality and the chiaroscuro of his repertoire of skills: we can take what we know about this person, stretch it like gum and transform this originally so modest assessment into the global opinion we have about it.

That is why, every time we stop to judge others, it is worth stopping to think that the facets of the personality and the way of being of someone are always more extensive than our predisposition to collect and analyze all the relevant information that is continually coming to us.

Bibliographic references:

• Brad Verhulst; M Lodge; H Lavine (2010). "The Attractiveness Halo: Why Some Candidates are Perceived More Favorably than Others". Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 34 (2), pp. 1 - 2.
• Forgas, J.P. (2011). Ella she just doesn't look like a philosopher??? Affective influence on the halo effect in impression formation. European Journal of Social Psychology. 41 (7): pp. 812 - 817.
• Kahneman, D. & Tversky. TO. (1973) The psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 80 (4), 237-251.
• Lachman, S.J.; Bass, A.R. (1985). A Direct Study of Halo Effect. Journal of Psychology, 119 (6): pp. 535 - 540.
• Rosenzweig, P.M. (2014). The Halo Effect and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers. New York, NY: Free Press.