What is the halo effect?

Why does a person tend to label people? This phenomenon has a scientific explanation - the halo effect. Favorable soil for the appearance of this effect arises when you learned a person superficially or before acquaintance knew about his reputation in society - positive or negative.

The halo effect is a special inclination, which is practically available to every person, to evaluate the behavior of other people on the basis of the initial impression.

To understand this phenomenon, let us give an example. Recently, you have a new colleague, who soon effectively solved any of your problems. Moreover, in the conversation he turned out to be a friendly and pleasant person. You decide that this is a "good man", which you can rely on in a difficult moment. But after a while you will find out that he made a fight in a decent public institution. The first thought that you will have will be something like this: "It can not be, it's gossip, I knew it, it's a wonderful person!". Thus, a positive halo effect is created. An example can be given not just one.

The halo effect is both negative and positive. He appears with respect to acquaintances, public figures, politicians, pop stars, and also with respect to famous brands. Suppose, if one day you liked the product of a company, then in the future you can start counting other of its goods as good. Although, perhaps, this is not entirely true. As a result, you believe the hanged label, since there is simply no time to understand it.

With tremendous success the halo effect is used by scammers. You can give an example from the classical literature. In Gogol's comedy The Inspector General, officials met Khlestakov, from the very beginning thinking that he was an inspector. Excessive confidence in this for a long time closed their eyes to the fact that Khlestakov does not understand his profession at all, does not fulfill his duties, and the auditor does not resemble anything.

In what conditions does the halo effect occur?

1. Lack of time. You do not have enough time to get to know a person well, to carefully analyze his behavior and form an opinion of him as a person.

2. Excessive amount of information can also cause this effect. You are overwhelmed with information about different people so much that you do not have the opportunity to analyze in detail the behavior of each person.

3. The stereotype of perception, which developed on the basis of the opinion of society about any group of people to which the person belongs. An example can be different subcultures: a man who professes punk culture and came to an interview in his usual clothes, it is quite possible that he will be negatively perceived by the personnel department.

4. Unordinary personality. Sometimes the brightest trait of this or that person strikes the public eye and pushes his other qualities to the background. Psychologists in the course of their studies concluded that such a feature in most cases is the appearance of a person.

The halo effect can be observed in the behavior of absolutely all people, since it is the result of innate subjectivism.