First Encounter with the Halo Effect
Once, I attended an industry seminar. The venue was packed, and everyone was looking forward to the sharing of an industry “guru”. When he stepped onto the stage, his sharp suit, confident smile, and well – organized speech instantly captured everyone’s attention. I was no exception. I wholeheartedly believed that he must be omnipotent in the professional field and firmly believed in his viewpoints.
However, later when communicating with my peers, someone mentioned that this “guru” had made a wrong decision in a certain project, causing heavy losses to the team. This surprised me greatly. Why didn’t I consider that he might not be perfect at that time? In fact, this is the halo effect in psychology at work. It means that when we form a good or bad impression of a certain characteristic of a person, we tend to infer other characteristics of that person based on this impression, just like the halo of a moon, spreading out in all directions. Simply put, it is to generalize from one aspect. This concept was put forward by the famous American psychologist Edward Thorndike in the 1920s. In life, the halo effect is everywhere, subtly influencing our cognition and judgment, and misleading us into thinking traps. Next, let’s deeply analyze the nature and influence of the halo effect together.
What is the Halo Effect?
The halo effect, also known as the halo error, was proposed by the American psychologist Edward Thorndike in the 1920s. It refers to the situation where, after we form a strong and distinct impression of a certain characteristic of a person or thing, we unconsciously extend this impression to other aspects, thus making an evaluation of the whole that is consistent with this characteristic. In simple terms, we may think that a person or thing is excellent in other aspects just because of one outstanding advantage, or we may deny its performance in other aspects because of one obvious disadvantage.
Thorndike found through experiments that when people give a positive evaluation of one quality of a person, they tend to give positive evaluations of other qualities of that person as well. For example, if we think a person is good – looking, we are likely to think that he has a good personality and strong abilities. It’s like the halo around the moon, spreading from a central bright spot in all directions, causing a deviation in our perception of things. The halo effect is quietly at work in many scenarios such as interpersonal communication, consumer decision – making, and workplace evaluation.
Common Manifestations of the Halo Effect
The Halo of Appearance
In life, the halo effect brought about by appearance is quite common. Walking on the street, when we see someone dressed fashionably with a good – looking face, we often subconsciously think that their taste, cultivation, and even work ability are high. For example, in some job interview situations, candidates with good looks and a good temperament are more likely to leave a good impression on interviewers. Even if their professional abilities are not the most outstanding, they may still get more opportunities. Or in school, good – looking classmates are often more likely to be elected as class leaders. Everyone thinks that not only are they good – looking, but they also have stronger leadership and communication skills. This halo generated by appearance makes us often ignore other important factors when evaluating others.
The Halo of Celebrities
The celebrity effect is also a typical manifestation of the halo effect. Many products endorsed by celebrities, even if they are expensive, have a considerable sales volume. Fans, out of their love for celebrities, believe that the products they recommend must be of good quality. For example, after a certain star endorsed a skin – care product, its sales volume soared. Many consumers blindly followed the trend and bought it without carefully studying the product ingredients and efficacy. Moreover, when celebrities make mistakes, some fans still strongly defend them. For example, after some celebrities were exposed to negative news, a large number of fans still firmly believed that it was slander from the outside world and refused to believe the truth. This is the celebrity halo at work, making fans lose their ability to make objective judgments.
The Halo of Success
The business world is also deeply influenced by the halo effect. When an enterprise achieves great success, its management model and corporate culture are often over – hyped. For example, Nokia, when it dominated the mobile phone market, its management model was regarded as a model by many enterprises, which they imitated one after another. But with the advent of the smartphone era, Nokia gradually declined due to wrong decisions, and the management model that was once regarded as a standard was also discarded. Similarly, under the leadership of Jia Yueting, LeEco expanded rapidly in multiple fields at one time. Its “ecological anti – integration” business model was widely publicized, attracting the attention of countless investors and entrepreneurs. However, when LeEco’s capital chain broke and it fell into a crisis, people completely negated its business model. This shows that the halo of success makes us tend to ignore the potential problems and risks when evaluating enterprises.
How the Halo Effect Forms Traps
Hindering Objective Judgment
One of the greatest harms of the halo effect is that it hinders us from making objective judgments about people or things. Take the workplace as an example. If a leader highly approves of an employee’s work attitude, he is likely to think that the employee is excellent in all aspects such as work ability and teamwork. Even if the employee performs poorly in some projects, it may be overlooked. Similarly, in the investment field, when investors see that a company has excellent performance in a certain period, they think that its management team is excellent and its business model is perfect, ignoring potential risks such as intensified industry competition and changes in the market environment. Blind investment may eventually lead to losses. This way of making judgments based on one – sided views prevents us from comprehensively and truly understanding things, thus leading to wrong decisions.
Missing Real Opportunities
The halo effect can also cause us to miss many real opportunities. When choosing a partner, we may think that a company with a large scale and high popularity is the best choice just because of these factors, while ignoring some small – scale but highly innovative and focused enterprises. For example, in the early days of the development of the Internet industry, many people were more optimistic about large companies with strong financial resources and powerful backgrounds, while ignoring small companies like Alibaba and Tencent, which were little – known at that time. However, it was these overlooked small companies that, with their unique innovative concepts and tenacious spirit of struggle, stood out in the market and became industry giants. If we are blinded by the halo effect, we may miss these potential high – quality partners and the opportunities to grow together and create brilliance.
How to Avoid the Traps of the Halo Effect
Maintain Rational Thinking
When facing people or things, we must remain calm and not be misled by the surface luster. When evaluating a person’s ability, we cannot conclude that he can perform outstandingly in practical work just because he has excellent eloquence. We should learn to control our emotions and subjective biases and avoid making hasty judgments based solely on the first impression. We can try to set a “buffer zone” in our minds. After forming a preliminary impression, instead of rushing to judge, give ourselves some time to collect more information and conduct a more in – depth analysis.
Understand the Essence Thoroughly
To truly understand a person or thing, we need to observe over a long period and collect information from multiple aspects. When choosing a partner, we should not only look at the company’s luxurious office environment and beautiful promotional materials but also deeply understand its team strength, past performance, reputation, etc. We can communicate with the company’s employees and partners to understand their true views. In interpersonal communication, we also need to observe the other person’s behavior in different situations through daily interactions to have a more comprehensive understanding of their personality and character.
Cultivate Critical Thinking
We should question and reflect on what we see and hear and not blindly accept existing viewpoints. When seeing an advertisement boasting that a certain product is “perfect”, we should think about whether there is exaggerated publicity behind it. When reading the viewpoints of experts, we should not accept them without thinking but analyze whether their arguments are sufficient and their reasoning is reasonable. We can participate in more debate activities or communicate with people with different viewpoints to exercise our ability to view problems from different perspectives and cultivate independent thinking and critical thinking.
Conclusion: Step out of the Halo and Embrace Reality
The halo effect is like a gorgeous but illusory fog, covering our cognition and unconsciously leading us astray from the track of truth. It affects our evaluation of others, our judgment of things, and even influences our life choices. However, as long as we remain rational, explore deeply, and have the courage to question, we can penetrate this fog and see the true features of things.
In future life, let’s always be vigilant against the traps of the halo effect and view everything around us with a more objective and rational eye. Don’t be misled by the external luster, don’t blindly follow the halos of others, and dig out the truths and values hidden behind the halos. In this way, we can make more informed decisions and harvest a more real and beautiful life. I hope everyone can develop a “sharp eye” in life, successfully avoid the misguidance of the halo effect, and move towards a more clear and accurate path of cognition. Have you ever been misled by the halo effect? Welcome to share your experiences in the comments section.
