Halo effect
Halo effect also known as halo error is nothing but a cognitive bias in which the perception of someone, we have made is influenced by his or her other related qualities and traits.
It happens when just one quality person is used to make an evaluation of his entire set of other qualities.
Historical links
As far as history tells, It was first identified by Frederick L Wells, an American psychologist while conducting a rating based study. But the first one who took it in recognition with its empirical evidence was Edword Thorndike. He too was an American psychologist whose work on learning theory helped lay the foundation of educational psychology.
Officially the term Halo error was introduced by Thorndike in his article 'The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings", published in 1920.
Thorndike gave the task to military officers to rank their subordinates. With these results he came to know that these rankings were based on physical impression of the subordinates. For instance A subordinate with good height was perceived as being much smarter than others so she was ranked better in comparison to others.
Examples of Halo effect
This term may seem to be strange but it is present in every aspect of our life.
Here are some examples of halo effect given below.
1. In Daily Life
We judge the entire movie by watching just its trailer. Actually The trailer reveals every aspect of the movie i.e what the story of this movie could be.
Although we have not watched the movie, yet we get a smack of the story of the entire movie. This is just because of Halo Effect.
2. In study
The Maths teacher when finds his/her student able to score good marks or Grades in his subject may lead him/her to believe that this student is excellent in other subjects as well. (i.e the student has achieved such an excellent score in other subjects as well).
3. In management
Suppose, a person appeared for an interview for any post.
If this person is good in English and speaks fluently can lead the interviewer to believe that he is good, clever ,smart and can handle the responsibilities very well.
While if this person is not good in English and can not speak fluently at all the interviewer may believe that this person will definitely be bad in other things as well and thus is not eligible for this post.
Here the manager gets an idea of other qualities by looking at person's just single quality. (i.e he is not good in English).
4. In Marketing Scenario
When the consumer has positive experiences with the product, he has been using four years. He obviously cognitively forms a brand loyalty bias in favour of this brand and its other offerings.
Suppose a person using mobile phone of Apple company for several years forms a brand loyalty and will always be ready for its other offerings. Means, he will consider iPod also a great offering from Apple.
Conclusion
As a manager or a leader one should not fall prey to Such bias. The perception we make about any of employee may not always be true. It can either create or destroy the image of anybody.
So we need to be very careful.
From marketing perspective building halo effect is most important because it enhances your brand loyalty, customer retention etc. in the customer's mind. It can lead us to take bad decisions which may not be true.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
◆ Halo effect is a cognitive bias in which impression of something/somebody (may be a product ,brand ,person, or a company etc.) influences its other unrelated qualities.
◆ Just opposite of halo effect is the Horn effect in which a negative perception about something (may be a person, brand, product , or a company etc.) is created in your mind.
◆ This term was introduced with empirical evidence by Edword L Thorndike in his published paper in 1920.
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