Halo effect
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Halo effect refers to the cognitive bias in which the assessment of an individual quality serves to influence and bias the judgment of other qualities. Said another way, a person who is good at “X” is often deemed to be good at “Y” even if the two items are not related. Attractive people are often judged as having a more desirable personality and more skills than someone of average appearance. Celebrities are used to endorse products that they have no expertise in evaluating.
When commanding officers were asked to rate their soldiers in an early psychology experiment conducted by Edward L. Thorndike, he found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits.[link] People seem to rarely think of each other in mixed terms; instead we seem to see them as universally roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement. Solomon Asch also performed research in this area. The halo effect may be involved with the theory of cognitive dissonance. [link]
In brand marketing, a halo effect is one where the perceived positive features of a particular item extend to a broader brand. It has been used to describe how the iPod has had positive effects on perceptions of Apple Computer's other products. The term is also widely used in the automotive industry, where a manufacturer may produce an exceptional halo vehicle in order to promote sales of an entire marque. Modern cars often described as halo vehicles include the Dodge Viper, Ford GT, and Acura NSX.
Similar to the halo effect is the "devil effect" (or "horns effect"), where an individual judged with one poor trait is subsequently judged to have many poor traits- allowing one weak point/negative trait to influence everything else. [link]
See also
References
- Asch, S. E. (1946). "Forming impressions of personality." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 41, 258-290
- Thorndike, E. L. (1920). "A Constant Error on Psychological Rating." Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. IV, 25-29
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