Characteristics Of The Halo Effect

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The halo effect can be understood as a type of cognitive bias where our overall impression of someone influence the way we feel about their character. The term first originated by psychologist Edward Thorndike who used it in his study in 1920 to explain the way officers rated their soldiers. It is a phenomenon in which highly influences first impressions. The halo effect uses global characteristics (such as attractiveness or likeable) to make judgments about specific personality traits (such as outgoing or nice). Individuals overall impressions of a person influences their feelings and thought about that person 's character. There are other characteristics we look at, however attractiveness outshines these other features.
The study of attractiveness
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Lucker, Beane, and Helmreich (1981) studied the strength of the halo effect in physical attractiveness by conducting a research to determine the magnitude of the halo effect. They found that attractiveness is a much better predictor of personality judgments about female targets than male targets. Attributions such as sexiness, femininity/masculinity, and even happiness showed a strong relationship to physical attractiveness. In a meta-analytic study of the effects of physical attractiveness, Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo (1991) found two general types of input that appear most important when considering how people learn their beliefs about what is associated with good looks; A direct observation of attractive and unattractive people in their social environment and exposure to cultural representation of attractive and unattractive people. Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo go on to say that the core of physical attractiveness is sociability, popularity, and similar attributes and has little impact on concern for others. There is a positive consistency of judgment based on attractiveness, between men and women and even across cultures (Cunningham et al., 1995; Langlois et al., 2000). Individuals hold higher expectations towards attractive individuals (Andreoni & Petrie, 2008). Individuals also tend to trust attractive individuals more often than they would with unattractive individuals (Wilson & Eckel, 2006). The halo effect has been studied by many researchers and social psychologist have a consensus of what it is. The research done can suggest that a person’s positive qualities, physical appearance, and general attractiveness affects how we judge their character. The more attractive they look, the better a person we judge them to

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