Halo Effect: The Science of First Impressions
Not all that glitters is gold
🏷️ Categories: Decision making and biases, Social relationships.
You look at someone and within seconds your brain has already made the decision.
Without even knowing his history, his character or his skills, you already have an opinion: He's nice, reliable, successful. Or, on the contrary, he is cold, distant, unreliable.
It comes out on its own, it's inevitable, it's the halo effect.
It all started with psychologist Edward Thorndike, who, while studying military men, discovered that high-ranking officers uniformly evaluated their subordinates. For example, if someone was considered responsible, other positive qualities, such as leadership or intelligence, were attributed to them without information.
The study showed something shocking.
Our opinions are formed by impressions, not data.
What is happening?
With little information, we fill in the missing details based on first impressions, thus attributing positive (or negative) qualities to a person or object just because of a characteristic that attracts (or displeases) us, assuming that all else is equal. It has been seen to happen in politics, in job hiring, in education, in the judicial system, and obviously in marketing.
If a person is attractive, we assume they are also smart and likable.
If a car brand looks luxurious, we assume it must be better in everything.
If a leader speaks with confidence, we assume he or she is more right than others.
In marketing and advertising they master it to shape your opinion, they are experts.
How they use it in marketing
Celebrity halo effect
If an elite athlete advertises a luxury watch, they don't give you technical details or evaluate the quality of the watch, they don't want to convince you with data, but with impressions, with feelings, with experiences. The success of the athlete is associated with the brand, making you believe that the watch is more valuable. There are thousands of examples.
Tennis player Rafa Nadal and his ad for Kia cars in Spain. They don't give you a single piece of information to convince you rationally. They just sell you an experience.
Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and perfume. If he announces it, it must be the best.
Your mind immediately associates the person with the object, even though they are not related and have not influenced the product in the slightest. Thus, the halo permeates the product.
Halo effect in designs
A product's design and packaging can outweigh its actual quality.
Attractive packaging or striking designs generate the perception of higher quality, justifying a higher price even though they offer similar features. A classic: Apple, which perfects the design of its products to convey this superiority, even though other cheaper options may match the features.
The iPod is the perfect example.
It was their cheapest product and reached the mass market, creating a reputation among users that quickly spread like a halo to the rest of the company's products, which increased sales of the rest of the products (Snyder, 2005).
The beautiful is confused with the good
In job interviews, trials and in politics; first impressions are key.
In interviews, if you dress well, show confidence and are an attractive person, they will tend to see you in a more positive light and think you are more intelligent. On the other hand, if you show nervousness or stutter, even if your resume says otherwise, their perception will be lousy (Dion et al., 1972; Landy & Sigall, 1974).
In politics, attractive people are more likely to win even without speaking. And if both give the same information, the more attractive one will be perceived as more competent... (Poutvaara et al., 2009; Berggren et al., 2016).
In trials, attractive people receive better treatment for committing the same crime, as you hear (Efran, 1974). The effect is reversed if the crime has to do with appearance, as attractive women were punished more severely in cases of swindling and manipulation (Sigall & Ostrove, 1975).
Our brain takes shortcuts. It does not analyze every detail.
It decides in seconds and prejudges.
It is a natural reaction to process information fast. However, it makes us susceptible to manipulations and errors of judgment, by giving and taking opportunities away from people without reasons. But now you know the effect and can change.
Next time you form a quick opinion, pause and ask yourself: Am I being unbiased or did I just generalize after seeing something I liked?
Brands, leaders, the media and even the people around you will still be spinning in a halo, but now you'll know how to avoid it. When you do, you'll start to see things and people through different eyes.
✍️ Your turn: How many times have you trusted someone just because they looked good or spoke well? How many opportunities have you missed-or given unfairly-based on a first impression?
💭 Quote of the day: “I liked his manners, and he strikes me as a fine gentleman, so I have no objection to your meeting him.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women.
Are you more curious? Here are 2 letters where I explain how they use psychology to convince you and make you buy more.
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Berggren, N., Jordahl, H., & Poutvaara, P. (2016). The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it. Journal Of Public Economics, 146, 79-86. URL
Dion, K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 24(3), 285-290. URL
Efran, M. G. (1974). The effect of physical appearance on the judgment of guilt, interpersonal attraction, and severity of recommended punishment in a simulated jury task. Journal Of Research In Personality, 8(1), 45-54. URL
Landy, D., & Sigall, H. (1974). Beauty is talent: Task evaluation as a function of the performer’s physical attractiveness. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 29(3), 299-304. URL
Poutvaara, P., Jordahl, H., & Berggren, N. (2009). Faces of politicians: Babyfacedness predicts inferred competence but not electoral success. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1132-1135. URL
Snyder Bulik, B. (2005, 17 enero). Apple puts iPod Halo to test with Shuffle and Mini. Adage. URL
Thorndike, E. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 4(1), 25-29. URL
Sigall, H., & Ostrove, N. (1975). Beautiful but dangerous: Effects of offender attractiveness and nature of the crime on juridic judgment. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 31(3), 410-414. URL