What is the Halo Effect and How Can it Be Used in Marketing?
The halo effect is a very common phenomenon that occurs quite often in a wide variety of fields. It can be relevant literally for any format of human relationships and, of course, is of great importance for advertising and marketing.
Content:
1. What is the halo effect? How and when did this term appear?
2. Why does the halo effect occur?
3. Where can you find the halo effect?
4. What other perceptual effects are there?
5. The halo effect in advertising and marketing
6. Conclusion
After reading our new article, you will learn about what the halo effect is in psychology, how it manifests itself in other areas and situations. We will also talk about what prerequisites influence its occurrence, what is the positive and negative impact of this effect, and also how this phenomenon can be used to promote brands and products.
What is the halo effect? How and when did this term appear?
The halo effect is a distortion of perception (cognitive distortion), in which a person or a group of people creates a superficial judgment about another person, object or any phenomenon based on the first impression or any expressive features (appearance, behavior, etc.) .)
The name of this term comes from the word halo - this is the designation of a radiance-like light border surrounding various objects. In a figurative sense, the halo is synonymous with the words "brilliance, honor, glory", as well as a religious attribute of divinity. This word was formed from the Latin word aureolus - "golden".
The halo effect was first described by the American psychologist and educator Edward Lee Thorndike in 1920. He conducted a study in which commanders evaluated soldiers on criteria such as physical fitness, leadership skills, intelligence, and personality characteristics. According to the results of the experiment with the halo effect, he found out that a high assessment of the physical development of soldiers had a positive effect on the assessment of their other qualities.
In the future, this cognitive distortion was studied by other well-known psychologists. For example, a 1941 study by John Monahan showed that juries were more likely to acquit attractive defendants. And another group of scientists came to the conclusion that the appearance of a politician has a significant impact on the outcome of his election campaign. They argue that voters trust politicians with serious and stern features more than those who look young.
And a 2011 study by psychologists Moore, Perrette, and Philippe found that the halo effect can extend beyond physical attractiveness to intelligence. They came to the conclusion that if a person is considered smart, then other positive qualities that are not directly related to intelligence are often attributed to him: leadership abilities, communication skills, etc.
Why does the halo effect occur?
So, in the previous section, we talked about what the halo effect means, and now it's time to describe the reasons for its occurrence. Experts believe that the fundamental factor of this phenomenon is emotionally charged information that can create cognitive distortions in human perception.
The origins of the halo effect originated in the mind of a primitive man, who needed to quickly determine his attitude towards strangers, animals, as well as any objects and phenomena. His safety directly depended on the speed of the reaction, since each subject or object encountered could carry a mortal threat. Thus, the halo effect is not just a cognitive distortion, but an ability inherited from our ancestors (once very useful).
In a modern person, a similar effect of perception can be caused by factors such as:
- Visibility. The presence of pronounced features in the appearance of a person or any object can distort his objective assessment. Instead, the impression of him will be made on the basis of this dominant trait alone. It is important that such visibility can be expressed not only in non-standard appearance, but also in charisma. In simple words, this is the ability to attract, convince and win people over, combined with leadership abilities.
- Lack of time. The halo effect especially often manifests itself in cases where you need to make a decision as quickly as possible, and there is simply no time for a balanced analysis. Then our brain has to use primitive tools and make a first impression based on the assessment of appearance or some other noticeable features.
- Information overload. Information overload is another common contributor to the halo effect. When the brain is overloaded, it goes into power-saving mode and starts saving resources. Therefore, in such conditions, a person or a group of people may have a superficial impression of someone or something.
- Disinterest. In addition, the halo effect is manifested in relation to those people, objects or phenomena that did not arouse much interest in the observer. Thus, if the brain has considered someone or something not worthy of attention, then it will not want to waste energy on its detailed analysis, and will limit itself to only the first impression.
- Stereotypes. The appearance of a halo, as well as other effects of perception, very often occurs under the influence of common social stereotypes. For example, people in formal business attire are perceived as more qualified and responsible, people with glasses appear smarter, and so on.
Where can you find the halo effect?
The halo effect is hardwired into the psychology of every person, regardless of their social status, race, religion or other characteristics. Because of this, this cognitive distortion is ubiquitous in many areas and life situations. The most common examples include:
Work and career
The halo effect is most often activated during interviews. For example, an HR manager or other responsible person may prefer an attractive and confident candidate over someone with more experience and better references. Also, during interviews, personnel officers and managers often evaluate applicants only by the degree of prestige of their HE diploma, paying much more attention to this than to all other positive qualities and achievements of candidates. The halo effect occurs not only in interviews, but also directly at work. For example, against the background of an exceptionally productive and capable employee, leaders and managers may underestimate other specialists. Ultimately, all of these cases have a negative impact on business performance.
Personal relationships
The halo effect and other effects in psychology have a great impact not only on work, but also on personal relationships. In the course of research, a team of neuroscientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came to the conclusion that the brain takes only 13 milliseconds to study the appearance of a person and form an opinion about it. In the modern world, the effects of perception are influenced not only by physical attractiveness, but also by a number of other components of the image. For example, these include clothing, shoes, hairstyle, tattoos or piercings, tone of voice, and a range of non-verbal behaviors.
Medicine
Separately, it is worth talking about the halo effect in medicine, the prevalence of which was proved in their study by a group of psychologists from the University of St. Andrews (Great Britain). They concluded that doctors and other medical staff may discriminate against people with attractive appearance, considering them healthy by default. This cognitive bias often results in beautiful patients being less likely to be referred for follow-up examinations, making their treatment less effective.
What other perceptual effects are there?
The halo effect is far from the only cognitive distortion that is inherent in the human brain. In addition to it, there are a number of other common effects of perception, namely:
- Psychological projection. When people attribute to others their own thoughts and emotions that they do not want to recognize from themselves. A subconscious defense mechanism based on the belief that other people feel the same way. Next to it is the false agreement effect, which encourages people to project their way of thinking onto others.
- Role effect. This cognitive distortion forces people to perceive this or that role model as real personality traits. For example, a subordinate may find a boss rude and obnoxious because he criticized his work.
- Intragroup favoritism. A very common perceptual effect whereby people tend to overestimate the positive qualities of their group members. They seem to them more intelligent, beautiful and decent than those who are not in the group. The same distortion can work in relation to people who are similar to each other.
- The effect of the actor and the observer. Because of this psychological effect, a person is inclined to explain his own miscalculations and mistakes by the prevailing circumstances (or other external factors), and the mistakes and miscalculations of others by the negative properties of their personality.
- The effect of causal attribution. This cognitive bias is similar in many ways to the previous one, in that it causes people to attribute success to their merit and failure to unfortunate circumstances. If you need to form an opinion about others, then the effect of causal attribution will work in reverse.
- Authority effect. People tend to listen to the opinions of people they respect, even if they are not experts on the issues they are talking about.
- Superiority effect. This cognitive distortion leads to the fact that a person can overestimate certain qualities of those people who are superior to him in some important parameter for him.
- The effect of a logical fallacy. A common perception effect leads to an erroneous judgment about the interconnectedness of certain personality traits. For example, a polite person is often considered decent by default, a good-natured person is often considered empathic, and so on.
- The effect of physiognomic reduction. Because of this distortion, people can infer the psychological state of a person and his personality in general based on an assessment of appearance.
- Presumption of reciprocity. Another common cognitive bias in society that causes people to believe that others treat them in the same way that they themselves treat others.
The halo effect in advertising and marketing
The active presence of the halo effect in psychology and everyday life makes it a very effective tool for promoting brands and their products. Modern marketers often use it and other perceptual effects when preparing advertising campaigns.
The most common example of the application of the halo effect is the bright packaging of goods: it acts as the very visibility factor that attracts the attention of buyers and makes them choose this particular product from a wide range.
Another classic example of the halo effect is the use of a single “flagship” product to promote an entire brand. A reference example here is the iPod audio player, whose success led to the rapid growth in popularity of other gadgets from Apple.
An equally popular way to use the halo effect in marketing is the participation of celebrities in advertising campaigns of famous brands and their products. Thus, advertisers use the celebrity halo to promote their own products and services. And buyers believe that if the products of the advertised brand are used by a famous person who inspires their respect, then they should pay attention to these goods or services.
Engaging celebrities to promote brands is considered to be a very effective marketing tool. Studies have shown that collaboration with celebrities and influencers has helped many companies achieve up to 100% increase in sales figures. On the other hand, this way of using the halo effect in marketing has its risks. If a famous person loses the favor of the audience (for example, due to scandals or problems with the law), then this leads to a decrease in popularity and the brand associated with it.
Conclusion
The halo effect is one of the most common effects in psychology. It can be caused by various factors, including any expressive features or, conversely, insignificance, lack of time for a balanced assessment, information overload, or exposure to various stereotypes.
The halo effect manifests itself in various areas of a person's life, especially in personal and work relationships. It is also an effective marketing tool used by many brands to promote their products and services. In addition to the halo effect, there are a number of other perceptual effects, each of which is represented by one or another cognitive distortion.
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