{"id":2552,"date":"2019-11-10T12:19:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T16:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2022-03-09T10:42:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T14:42:53","slug":"halo-effect-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/halo-effect-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Halo Effect: Why We Like Attractive People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the halo effect<\/a>? What is a good halo-effect example?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The halo effect<\/a> is a bias that says that if you think positively about something, it extends to everything else you can think about that thing.<\/strong> This is a cognitive bias<\/a> that may lead to bad decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn the meaning of the halo effect in psychology, why we’re vulnerable to it, and how it works in a halo effect example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Halo Effect<\/strong> Example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Say you find someone visually attractive and you like this person for that reason. As a result, you are more likely to find her intelligent or capable, even if you have no evidence of this. Even further, you tend to like intelligent people, and now that you think she\u2019s intelligent, you like her better than you did before, causing a feedback loop.  This demonstrates the meaning of the halo effect.
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In other words, your emotional response fills in the blanks for what\u2019s cognitively missing from your understanding. This is an example of the halo effect.
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What does “halo effect” mean? The Halo Effect forms a simpler, more coherent story by generalizing one attribute to the entire person. Inconsistencies about a person, if you like one thing about them but dislike another, are harder to understand. \u201cHitler loved dogs and little children\u201d is troubling for many to comprehend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting it all together, we are most vulnerable to the halo effect in psychology when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n