The halo
effect can be explained as a type of cognitive bias we create from the overall
impression of a person, it influences how we think or feel about the person’s
character. The overall impression of a person impacts the evaluation and
thoughts you have about a specific person’s traits. For example a celebrity is likable,
good looking and successful. So you might also see them as funny, smart and
nice.
This was
discovered in a study performed by Thorndike. He asked two commanding officers
to evaluate their soldiers in terms of their physical qualities (neatness,
voice, physique, bearing, and energy), intellect, leadership skills and
personal qualities (dependability, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness,
cooperation. The goal of the study was to see how the ratings of one characteristic
affected other characteristics.
The study showed that there was too great
correlation in the commanding officers responses. The rating of one of the
qualities of a soldier often set a trend for the rest of the rating. If a
soldier had a specific negative attribute it would correlate with the rest of
the soldiers result.
