About the Halo Effect Theory

Halo effect

1.

Also known as "halo effect", "stereotype effect" and "halo phenomenon", it refers to the process of interpersonal interaction. An exaggerated social impression formed in the sky, just like the brilliance of the sun and moon, which expands to the surroundings under the influence of clouds and mist, forming a halo effect. It often manifests itself in the fact that a person's initial impression of another person (or thing) determines his overall view, but he is unable to identify the other person's true qualities, forming a good or bad "prejudice". Therefore, the halo effect can also be called the "one-point overview effect." It is the result of generalization and stereotype of subjective inference.

Dean designed an experiment: Let the subjects look at some photos. Some of the people in the photos are very attractive, some are average, and some are very poor; then, let the subjects use the Words that have nothing to do with charisma describe these people. The results showed that attractive people received high ratings in all aspects, while unattractive people received low ratings in all aspects. This phenomenon, which is generalized and extended by cognitive characteristics to other aspects, is called the halo effect, or "halo effect." Judging people by their appearance is a halo effect for first time acquaintances.

In photography terms, it can also be called the halo effect. "Halo" is a photographic term. Anyone who knows photography knows that photographic imaging is caused by light sensitizing the emulsion layer of the film. When the light is too strong, it will not only penetrate the emulsion layer, but also pass through the emulsion and reflect back to the film base, causing secondary light in the emulsion layer. In this way, a halo-like image will appear around the elephant, which is called a halo phenomenon.

The halo phenomenon will affect people's overall and accurate understanding of things, making people feel blurred about the original appearance of the image. Psychological research shows that similar phenomena sometimes occur in people's psychological activities. As people often say, "a little bit of it is not as good as the rest." Therefore, psychologists call the effect of this strong impression on people and things the halo effect.

The halo effect can make people successful, but it can also deceive people. We should correctly understand the halo effect, give full play to its positive aspects, prevent its negative effects, and overcome the bias in social perception.

2.

The halo effect was first proposed by the famous American psychologist Thorndike in the 1920s. He believes that people's cognition and judgment of people often only start from a local point, like a sun's halo, gradually spreading out from a central point into a larger and larger circle, and from this, an overall impression is obtained. Accordingly, Thorndike gave this psychological phenomenon an appropriate name - the "halo effect", which is characterized by overgeneralizing and evaluating unfamiliar people or people with serious emotional tendencies. This effect is particularly obvious when: if a person is labeled as good, he will be enveloped in a positive and affirmative aura and given the quality of everything is good; if a person is labeled as bad, he will be They are shrouded in a halo of negativity and are considered to have various bad qualities.

The essence of the halo effect is a kind of subjective psychological conjecture that is overgeneralized. Its errors are:

First, it is easy to grasp the individual characteristics of things and is accustomed to making individual inferences. And in general, it is like a blind man touching an elephant, using points to represent faces.

Second, it links some personality or appearance characteristics that are not intrinsically related, asserting that one characteristic must lead to another.

Third, it affirms everything that is good and denies everything that is bad. This is an absolute tendency dominated by subjective bias.

The so-called halo effect is that in interpersonal communication, a certain aspect of a person's characteristics masks other characteristics, thereby causing barriers to interpersonal cognition.

< p>In daily life, the "halo effect" often quietly affects our perception and evaluation of others. For example, some elderly people are dissatisfied with the individual shortcomings, clothing, and living habits of young people, and think that they must have no future; some young people will look down on them because they admire a certain cuteness in their friends. Cute, as the saying goes, "one handsome man covers all ugliness."

The halo effect is a kind of subjective psychological conjecture that is overgeneralized. Its mistakes are: first, it is easy to grasp the individual characteristics of things and is used to extrapolating the individual to the general, just like a blind man touching an elephant. Use points to represent faces; secondly, it connects some personality or appearance characteristics that have no internal connection, and asserts that if there is such a characteristic, there must be another characteristic; thirdly, it says it is all positive when it says it is good, and it is sure when it says it is bad. Deny all, this is an absolute tendency dominated by subjective bias.

In short, the halo effect is a cognitive disorder that has a great impact on people's psychology in interpersonal communication. We should try our best to avoid and overcome the side effects of the halo effect in our interactions.

The most typical example is that we are always surprised when we see a certain star exposed in some scandals in the media. In fact, the image of the star in our minds is simply her appearance on the screen or in the media. The true identity of the "lunar halo" shown to us is unknown to us and is only inferred.

Stereotype effect:

In "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Pang Tong, who was as famous as Zhuge Liang, went to visit Sun Quan. "Quan saw that he had thick eyebrows and raised nose, a dark face, a short beard, and a strange appearance. "I'm not happy"; Pang Tong met Liu Bei again, "Xuande was displeased when he saw Tong's ugly appearance."

Both Sun Quan and Liu Bei believed that an ugly person like Pang Tong would not have much talent, so they were unhappy. This was actually the negative impact of the stereotype effect at work.

Contrast effect:

An average-looking woman walking next to a beautiful woman she does not know will look ugly and lower her self-esteem. In psychology, we usually call this phenomenon the contrast effect, which means feeling the gap with the comparison target, resulting in a negative emotional experience.

Projection effect:

In Japan, dolls represent the image of what little girls hope they will be when they grow up. When Barbie was first launched in Japan, in the eyes of teenagers, the breasts were too big, the legs were too long, and the blue eyes did not look like Japanese girls at all, so sales were not good. The company modified Barbie's breasts and legs and changed the eyes to brown. Nearly 2 million Barbie dolls were sold within two years. Products like "Goldlion, a man's world" have conquered a large number of consumers. The popular "Rogue Rabbit" a few years ago also took advantage of the projection psychology of teenagers to achieve success.

Primacy effect:

Primacy effect has a greater impact on people in interpersonal communication and is an important term in communicative psychology. The impression left by people in their first interaction forms and occupies a dominant position in the other person's mind. This effect is the primacy effect. What we often say "leave a good impression on others" generally refers to the first impression, where the primacy effect exists.

Therefore, in social activities such as making friends, recruiting, and job hunting, we can use this effect to show people an excellent image and lay a good foundation for future communication. Of course, this is only a temporary behavior in social activities, and deeper interactions require your hardware to be complete. This requires you to strengthen your quality in speech, behavior, cultivation, etiquette and other aspects, otherwise it will lead to another negative effect, that is, the recency effect.

Recency effect:

The recency effect is the opposite of the primacy effect. It refers to the impression left by the last time you meet in a relationship. This impression will also remain in the other person's mind. Lasts a long time. For a friend you haven’t seen for many years, the deepest impression in your mind is actually the scene when you say goodbye; a friend always makes you angry, but when you talk about the reasons for your anger, you can only give two or three reasons. This is also a kind of The manifestation of recency effect.

Use the recency effect to distinguish yourself from your friends and give them good wishes. Your image will be beautified in his heart