Halo effect
The halo effect or halo error is a cognitive bias in which our judgments of a person’s character can be influenced by our overall impression of them. It can be found in a range of situations—from the courtroom to the classroom and in everyday interactions. The halo effect was given its name by psychologist Edward Thorndike and since then, several researchers have studied the halo effect in relation to attractiveness, and its bearing on the judicial and educational systems.
History
Edward Thorndike, known for his contributions to educational psychology, coined the term "halo effect" and was the first to support it with empirical research.[1] He gave the phenomenon its name in his 1920 article “The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings”. He had noted in a previous study made in 1915 that estimates of traits in the same person were very highly and evenly correlated. In “Constant Error”, Thorndike set out to replicate the study in hopes of pinning down the bias that he thought was present in these ratings.
Supporting evidence
Thorndike's first study of the halo effect was published in 1920. The study included two commanding officers who were asked to evaluate their soldiers in terms of physical qualities (neatness, voice, physique, bearing, and energy), intellect, leadership skills, and personal qualities (including dependability, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness, and cooperation). Thorndike's goal was to see how the ratings of one characteristic affected other characteristics.
Thorndike's experiment showed how there was too much of a correlation in the responses of the commanding officers. In Thorndike's review he stated, "The correlations were too high and too even. For example, for the three raters next studied the average correlation for physique with intelligence is .31; for physique with leadership, .39; and for physique with character, .28."[1] The ratings of one of the special qualities of an officer tend to start a trend in the rating results. If an officer had a particular "negative" attribute given off to the commanding officer, it would correlate in the rest of that soldier's results.
The correlation in the halo effect experiment was concluded to be a halo error. The halo error showed that the officers relied mainly on general perception of certain characteristics that determined the results of their answers.
Role of attractiveness
The halo effect isn’t limited to individual traits or overall likeability, a person’s attractiveness has also been found to produce a halo effect.
On personality and happiness
Dion and Berscheid (1972) conducted a study on the relationship between attractiveness and the halo effect.[2] Sixty students from University of Minnesota took part in the experiment, half being male and half being female. Each subject was given three different photos to examine: one of an attractive individual, one of an individual of average attractiveness, and one of an unattractive individual.
The participants judged the photos’ subjects along 27 different personality traits (including altruism, conventionality, self-assertiveness, stability, emotionality, trustworthiness, extraversion, kindness, and sexual promiscuity). Participants where then asked to predict the overall happiness the photos' subjects would feel for the rest of their lives, including marital happiness (least likely to get divorced), parental happiness (most likely to be a good parent), social and professional happiness (most likely to experience life fulfillment), and overall happiness. Finally, participants were asked if the subjects would hold a job of high status, medium status, or low status.
Results showed that participants overwhelmingly believed the more attractive subjects to have more socially desirably personality traits than either the averagely attractive or unattractive subjects. Participants also believed that the attractive individuals would lead happier lives in general, have happier marriages, be better parents, and have more career success than the unattractive or averagely attractive individuals. Also, results showed that attractive people were believed to be more likely to hold secure, prestigious jobs compared to unattractive individuals.[3]
Academics and intelligence
Landy and Sigall’s 1974 study demonstrated the halo effect on judgments of intelligence and competence on academic tasks. 60 male undergraduate students rated the quality of written essays, which included both well-written and poorly written samples. One third of the participants were presented with a photo of an attractive female as an author, another third were presented with a photo of an unattractive female as the author, and the last third were not shown a photo.
Participants gave significantly better writing evaluations for the more attractive author. On a scale of 1–9 with 1 being the poorest, the well-written essay by the attractive author received an average of 6.7 while the unattractive author received a 5.9 (with a 6.6 as a control). The gap was larger on the poor essay: the attractive author received an average of 5.2, the control a 4.7, and the unattractive a 2.7. These results suggest that people are generally more willing to give physically attractive people the benefit of the doubt when performance is below standard, whereas unattractive people are less likely to receive this favored treatment.[4]
In Moore, Filippou, and Perret’s 2011 study, the researchers sought to determine if residual cues to intelligence and personality existed in male and female faces. Researchers attempted to control for the attractiveness halo effect, but failed. They manipulated the perceived intelligence of photographs of individuals, and it was found that those faces that were manipulated to look high in perceived intelligences were also rated as more attractive. It was also found that the faces high in perceived intelligence were also rated highly on perceived friendliness and sense of humor.[5]
Effects on jurors
Multiple studies have found the halo effect operating within juries. Research shows that attractive individuals receive lesser sentences and are not as likely to be found guilty than an unattractive individual. Efran (1974) found that subjects were more generous when giving out sentences to attractive individuals than to unattractive individuals, even when exactly the same crime was committed. One reason why this occurs is because people with a high level of attractiveness are seen as more likely to have a brighter future in society due to the socially desirable traits they are believed to possess.[6]
Monahan (1941) did a study on social workers who are accustomed to interacting with people from all different types of backgrounds. The study found that the majority of these social workers found it very difficult to believe that beautiful looking people are guilty of a crime.[7]
The relation of the crime itself to attractiveness is also subject to the halo effect.[8] A study presented two hypothetical crimes: a burglary and a swindle. The burglary involved a woman illegally obtaining a key and stealing $2,200; the swindle involved a woman manipulating a man to invest $2,000 in a fabricated business. The results showed that when the offense was not related to attractiveness (in this case, the burglary), the unattractive defendant was punished more severely than the attractive one. However, when the offense was related to attractiveness (the swindle), the attractive defendant was punished more severely than the unattractive one. Participants may have believed the attractive person more likely to manipulate someone using their looks.
Halo effect in education
Abikoff found that the halo effect is also present in the classroom. In this study, both regular and special education elementary school teachers watched videotapes of what they believed to be children in regular 4th-grade classrooms. In reality, the children were actors, depicting behaviors present in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), or or standard behavior. The teachers were asked to rate the frequency of hyperactive behaviors observed in the children. Teachers rated hyperactive behaviors accurately for children with ADHD; however, the ratings of hyperactivity and other behaviors associated with ADHD were rated much higher for the children with ODD-like behaviors, showing a halo effect for children with oppositional defiant disorder.[9]
Foster and Ysseldyke (1976) also found the halo effect present in teachers’ evaluations of children. Regular and special education elementary school teachers watched videos of a normal child whom they were told was either emotionally disturbed, possessing a learning disorder, mentally retarded, or "normal". The teachers then completed referral forms based on the child's behavior. The results showed that teachers held negative expectancies toward emotionally disturbed children, maintaining these expectancies even when presented with normal behavior. In addition, the mentally retarded label showed a greater degree of negative bias than the emotionally disturbed or learning disabled. [10]
Criticisms and limitations
Some researchers allege that the halo effect is not as pervasive as once believed. Kaplan’s 1978 study yielded much of the same results as are seen in other studies focusing on the halo effect—attractive individuals were rated high in qualities such as creativity, intelligence, and sensitivity than unattractive individuals. In addition these results, Kaplan found that women were influenced by the halo effect on attractiveness only when presented with members of the opposite sex. When presented with an attractive member of the same sex, women actually tended to rate the individual lower on socially desirable qualities.[11]
Criticisms have also pointed out that jealously of an attractive individual could be a major factor in evaluation of that person. A study by Dermer and Thiel has shown this to be more prevalent among females then males, with females describing physically attractive women as having socially undesirable traits.[12]
Halo effect and NGOs
The term "halo effect" has been applied to human rights organizations that have used their status to move away from their stated goals. Political scientist Gerald Steinberg has claimed that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) take advantage of the "halo effect" and are "given the status of impartial moral watchdogs" by governments and the media.[13][14]
Devil effect
The devil effect, also known as the reverse halo effect, is when people allow an undesirable trait to influence their evaluation of other traits, such as in Nisbett and Wilson's study on likeable versus unlikeable lecturers.[15] The devil effect can work outside the scope of personality traits and is expressed by both children and adults.[16] The Guardian wrote of the devil effect in relation to Hugo Chavez: "Some leaders can become so demonised that it's impossible to assess their achievements and failures in a balanced way."[17]
See also
- Affect heuristic
- Association fallacy
- Attribute substitution
- Confirmation bias
- List of cognitive biases
- Lookism
References
- ^ a b Thorndike, E.L (1). "A constant error in psychological ratings". Journal of Applied Psychology. 4 (1): 25–29. doi:10.1037/h0071663.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Dion, K (1972). "What is beautiful is good". Journal of personality and social psychology. 24 (3): 285–90. PMID 4655540.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Dion, Karen. "What is Beautiful is Good". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 3 (24): 285–290.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Landy, D. "Task Evaluation as a Function of the Performers' Physical Attractiveness". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 29 (3): 299–304.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Moore, F. R. (2011). "Intelligence and Attractiveness in the Face: Beyond the Attractiveness Halo Effect". Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. 9 (3): 205–217.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Efran, M. G. "The Effect of Physical Appearance on the Judgment of Guilt, Interpersonal Attraction, and Severity of Recommended Punishment in Simulated Jury Task". Journal of Research in Personality. 8: 45–54.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Monahan, F. (1941). Women in Crime. New York: Washburn.
- ^ Ostrove, Nancy (1975). "Beautiful but Dangerous: Effects of Offender Attractiveness an Nature of the Crime on Juridic Judgment" (PDF). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 31 (3): 410–414.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Abikoff, H. "Teachers' Ratings of Disruptive Behaviors: The Influence of Halo Effects". Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 21 (5): 519–533.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Foster, Glen (1976). "Expectancy and Halo Effects as a Result of Artificially Induced Teacher Bias". Contemporary Educational Psychology. 1 (1): 37–45.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Kaplan, Robert M. (1978). "Is Beauty Talent? Sex Interaction in the Attractiveness Halo Effect". Sex Roles. 4 (2): 195–204.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Dermer, M. (1975). "When beauty may fail" (PDF). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 31 (6): 1168–1176.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Jeffray, Nathan (24 June 2010). "Interview: Gerald Steinberg". The Jewish Chronicle.
- ^ Balanson, Naftali (8 October 2008). "The 'halo effect' shields NGOs from media scrutiny". The Jerusalem Post.
- ^ Nisbett, Richard E. (1977). "The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 35 (4). American Psychological Association: 250–256. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.35.4.250. ISSN 1939-1315.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Koenig, Melissa A. (1 September 2011). "Characterizing Children's Expectations About Expertise and Incompetence: Halo or Pitchfork Effects?". Child Development. 82 (5): 1634–1647. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01618.x.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Glennie, Jonathan (3 May 2011). "Hugo Chávez's reverse-halo effect". The Guardian.
Further reading
- Sutherland, Stuart (2007). Irrationality (Reprinted. ed.). London: Pinter & Martin. ISBN 978-1-905177-07-3.
- Dean, Jeremy (2007). "The Halo Effect: When Your Own Mind is a Mystery". PsyBlog.
- Rosenzweig, Phil (2007). The halo effect : ... and the eight other business delusions that deceive managers (1st Free Press trade pbk. ed. ed.). New York, NY [etc.]: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-9125-5.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - Steinberg, Gerald M (30 December 2009). "Human Rights NGOs Need a Monitor". The Jewish Daily Forward.
- Chandra, Ramesh (2004). Social development in India. Delhi, India: Isha. ISBN 8182050243.