Falling in love at first sight easily? The halo and horn effect
The first day of college and just as you walked in your class, your eyes got stuck on this good looking guy. So you convince yourself, “Oh, it’s love at first sight. He is so handsome & seems so Fun, Smart & Friendly”.
Oh Nooo…..But wait! You didn’t even talk to him. So odds are your heart is in for an uncalled Heart Break💔.
Apologies to start my blog on such a dark note. But frankly, we all know how quick we are to judge someone based on their physical traits. And it might just not be a physical trait causing you to judge a person overall, it can be any ONE single trait causing it.
Let’s have a RAPID FIRE round before we proceed. Below are some illustrations of people [1–5]. Go in a sequence & think of their first impression as you see them.
If you are done with the activity, read ahead.
I asked some people to participate in the same activity, and the results were interesting. Based on physical characteristic/s they gave me their first impressions. Observe the results in the image below.
The participants pin-pointed the first impressions since I asked them to do so.
But
Aren’t we all doing it daily at our workplaces, schools & colleges or any place for that matter.? Aren’t we all judging a person in a positive/negative way just as we look at them? It might not impact us or that person at the moment, but it unconsciously reflects in our behaviour when we communicate or engage with them.
Evaluate yourself on these questions:
- Are you more polite & helpful to someone you found attractive?
- Did you ignore an unattractive person when they asked for help?
- Do you talk rudely to poorly dressed strangers?
If your answer is yes, then you are making a Halo error or Horn error. So, let’s dig deeper into them.
What is the Halo Effect and Horn Effect?
The term Halo effect was first coined by psychologist Edward Thorndike.
😇 Halo Effect is an error in reasoning, causing one positive trait of a person or a thing define an overall judgement of that person or thing in a positive direction.
😈 Horn Effect or Reverse Halo Effect is an error in reasoning, causing one negative or unfavourable trait of a person or a thing define an overall judgement of that person or thing in negative direction
Halo is often referred to as a circle of light around or above the head of a saint or holy person to represent their holiness, in other words, signifying, that person is good😇. Thus, the term “Halo effect” itself uses this analogy to describe how it can affect opinions, where one person creates this bright Halo of one trait and perceives another person in that same light, thereby ignoring his overall characteristics.
For example, You may not know much about your favourite movie actors, but you likely picture them in real life as nice, polite, brave or smart people.
Charles Holm, in his book, ‘The 25 Cognitive Biases — Uncovering the myth of Rational Thinking’ states, “Research has shown that people tend to attribute positive traits to people who they perceived as physically attractive & negative traits to those who are not. That is why it is called the ‘physical attractiveness stereotype’ and the “what is beautiful is good’ principle.
Where it Affects Us in Our Daily Life:
- In Workplaces or Hiring
- In Schools & Colleges
- In Marketing Campaigns
- In Interpreting the Health
- In Relationships or Marriages
In Workplaces or Hiring
How unjust it may seem, or how harsh it is to acknowledge the fact that “Halo Effect” happens in the workplace and may influence your job prospects. From the moment we apply for some company, our physical representations in our Resume picture are in this Stereotype well before we show ourselves in actuality.
A survey was conducted by an American Company, Univia on nearly 1000 participants (562 identified as female, and 435 were male). Findings were 59% of the respondents said that they got benefitted from their appearance at work. Moreover, 86% of employees believed physical appearances matter in workplaces. 70% of them assume that they perceive good looking employees to be more competent and better performance-wise.
In Schools & Colleges
Halo Effect / Horn Effect may cloud an educator’s judgement that could influence a student’s ranking or rank. Similarly, Students too can be biased towards teachers for any characteristics they deem attractive or unattractive.
For Example, Shubh is an intelligent student who performs well in exams, but one time he back answered to his teacher Mrs Agarwal. Now when Mrs Agarwal had to rate him for Internal Marks, she could only recall how Shubh misbehaved. Thus, ignoring his academic performance for the whole semester, she cuts his grading, although, Grading should be completely academic performance-driven. Mrs Agarwal became a victim of Horn Effect here.
Another example is, On the first day of the class, Mr.Nigam, a Science teacher, recognises Supriya as a good speaker. A week later, Mr Nigam got an opportunity to select a candidate for Science Olympiad. Amongst other competent students, he recommends Supriya even without evaluating her knowledge in Science. Mr Nigam here is a victim of Halo error, considering one characteristic of Supriya defines her skills in Science too.
Research published in the Australian Journal of Education highlights Grading bias, a phenomenon which leads to students receiving up to 5 marks less if they have “unfavourable characteristics”.
The same applies to students as well. Students may let physical attractiveness of teachers define their proficiency in the subject too. So when it comes to rating the teacher, they might be biased.
In Marketing Campaigns
Have you ever considered why marketing campaigns, posters or advertisements mostly have physically attractive people as their front faces?
Because their front face acts as a “Halo” over our perception of an entire Brand or Organization. Whenever we recall a brand, we might recall it with the identity of that person, even if the person has no relation with the product or even the company in general.
In the Health Industry, these buzzwords like “organic”, “Gluten-free”, “Healthy” or “Natural” are being used as key-selling points by brands. This is known as “Health Halo” where consumers start perceiving these products as healthy just because of how they repeatedly promote themselves. But in reality, these so-called healthy products might not be as healthy as their inexpensive rivals.
In Interpreting the health
Riya daily comes to the office and is an introvert. She is this attractive and fit girl, puts on makeup and is mostly busy with work. Her colleagues think of her as a very healthy & fit person, content & doing good in her life. But Riya is someone who can’t sleep well, is facing anxiety issues, and has a lot on her plate. So her colleagues here are a victim of Halo error, mistaking Ria’s “health” with her “attractiveness”.
We equate “skinny” with healthy & “Fat” with “unhealthy”. We neglect the fact that endurance or power can vary in both cases. It is same as Judging a Book by its Cover.
A study done by Sean N. Talamas, Kenneth I. Mavor, and David I. Perrettstates states:
Kalick, Zebrowitz, Langlois and Johnson found that evaluators’ perceptions of attractiveness are actually poor predictors of current or future actual health.Thus implying, “attractiveness suppresses the accurate recognition of health.”
In Relationships or Marriages
When we’re talking about Arranged Marriages, most of them are solely based on either the physical beauty of both individuals or the first impressions. People appear to neglect the fact that Attractiveness will not hold a marriage for years or the first impression is not the last impression in relationships at least.
Also before marriage, couples have a hard time accepting that the other party may have any negative characteristics. Because of “Halo Effect,” they could see only the positive ones and post-marriage regret that if they identified the negative traits, they wouldn’t have entered into it.
How can we avoid the Halo😇-Horn😈 effect?
Both of these biases are a mental shortcut used by our brains to make decisions easily & quickly, so we are so used to it that we do it unconsciously now. We don’t even realize that we are being unfair to someone because of this Horn error, or we are giving someone an undue advantage based on our one good perception because of Halo error. Our brains are wired in a way, that if we like or dislike someone we will be biased towards them accordingly.
University of New England associate professors John Malouff said teachers are not intentionally biased, and their bias is often unconscious. “They would swear in a court of law that they did it fairly but they just would not know,” he said.
So there is only one way to avoid it ourselves, which is, being conscious of our thinking while we are judging or making decisions for someone. Like are we ignoring a few bad characteristics in them that may bother us later by being clouded with one Good characteristic? Or Are we ignoring a few good characteristics in them by being clouded with one Bad characteristic?
“Ask yourself whether someone actually has a certain quality or you are just assuming they do based on what you like about them.
— By Charles Holm
This is one of the biases that we fall victim to but there exists more like Availability Bias, Hindsight Bias, Projection Bias or Survivorship Bias. These all impact our lives in ways sometimes we don’t even understand.
The knowledge of some common biases can help make our decision-making abilities better and Life Easier.
Credits: Thank you Iconscout for this amazing pack of Indian Doodle Illustrations.
