The science of psychology shows the world that there are many things that we don’t realize about ourselves. There are many things to know and learn about psychology, but one concept has surely changed all humans lives before without us knowing. This is called “The Halo Effect”.
The Halo Effect is defined as “the tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area” on dictionary.com It occurs when one person looks at someone or something attractive. When one looks at an attractive thing they naturally assume that it is good. This is done by many famous people like actors, actresses, and politicians. There is also a big place for it in marketing and advertising.
In famous people, this effect is used to their advantage in daily life, that is, unless they want people to think they are bad. Famous people usually are looked up to, being rich and sometimes beautiful. A politician would use The Halo Effect by generally smiling a lot and acting friendly. This gives the impression that this person of power is always friendly. The effect is also very popular in attractive celebrities. When one looks at an attractive person or celebrity, they assume that their good looks correlate to good morality. This also works sometimes vice versa when people think unattractive person is bad. Acting warmer can also make a person appear more attractive, which is an example of The Halo Effect working the other way around.
In the advertising and marketing business, items are more successfully sold with certain names, brands, or people backing them. For example, a big, or “attractive” company can attach themselves to an object that wouldn’t have previously sold for much, but with the big name backing, it it begins to sell well.
In a small experiment of six Franklin students, 78% of the results showed students matching attractive faces with good people, and unattractive faces with bad. In this test, the students were shown six different pictures of celebrities who had done things wrong and illegal. Most considered the famous people good looking and were surprised to find out what most of them had done.
Many who know about The Halo Effect are still affected by it because they don’t realize that it’s happening to them in the moment. Some will still vote for a politician that overall appears friendly or like a good person while not really considering that they aren’t. One will assume an actor is a genuinely nice person because they look nice. Becoming educated on the con is a way to prevent being tricked by it, but the world will always be affected by The Halo Effect.
