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 it other traits for example we might think of an attractive person
is 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 the 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 to 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 the politicians who we tend to believe in
trust to make good decisions simply because they look good on billboards and
their smiles seems 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 examples 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
swipe 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 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 and 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 textbook 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
psychology of Attraction calm thank you guys so much for watching I hope you
learned something until next time