Cognitive biases are part of the psychological phenomena most studied from the cognitive sciences and most taken into account in Marketing Psychology.
They are evidence that Human beings are tremendously prone to not interpret reality based on rational analysis, calm and based on valid reasoning from the point of view of logic. Among these cognitive biases, one of the best known is halo effectwhich explains some of the irrational aspects that make us judge a person, a product or a place more positively or negatively.
The halo effect is a cognitive bias by which we tend to make our opinion and global assessment of a person, organization, product or brand arise from the way in which we judge and value specific properties and characteristics of that person, organization, product. or brand. The term is based on the idea that if we clearly identify a positive aspect in someone we do not yet know well, that fact increases the chances that we will generally view that person favorably.
Thus, the halo effect is based on the idea that we show a propensity to use our assessment of a very specific characteristic of something or someone to “fabricate” from it a global assessment of that person, organization or abstract element: we extend our opinion of that property to the entire element we are judging and we cause this impression to interfere with the way we interpret many other properties of the element
In short, the halo effect is a tendency to make our impressions and opinions about certain characteristics of a subject or object depend on the impression that other characteristics have made on us before.
The history of this cognitive bias
The American Psychologist Edward Thorndike He was the first to give his name to the halo effect and to provide empirical evidence to prove its existence. He did it in 1920, when through an article called A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings, in which he showed the results of an experiment carried out with the military. This investigation was relatively simple; A series of officers were asked to rate certain qualities in several of their subordinates.
From this data, Thorndike saw that The way in which a specific characteristic was valued was highly correlated with the assessment made of the rest of the characteristics People who obtained negative scores in one of their characteristics tended to have negative scores in the rest of the aspects, and those who were valued positively in one specific aspect tended to be valued positively in all the others.
The Halo Effect and celebrities
The halo effect is noticeable in our daily lives, for example, in the way we perceive famous people linked to major record labels the most recognized sports or Hollywood movies.
These are people whose public image has been painstakingly carved by marketing and advertising agencies and about whom we hardly know much (after all, we don’t usually deal with them directly). However, this does not prevent, for example, many people from being considered opinion leaders, great thinkers whose famous phrases are enthusiastically applauded and, in general, people whose opinion on topics far removed from their profession is usually highly valued.
This fact, by the way, is often used in marketing and advertising.
Marketing takes advantage of this psychological effect
The halo effect is also noticeable in those advertising campaigns in which a famous person is used to advertise a product or service. Its inclusion in these advertising pieces does not tell us much about the characteristics and functionalities of the coffee maker that is being sold to us, or about the advantages of the insurance company that is advertised, and yet its presence subtly affects us. Ultimately, if an organization is willing to spend money hiring or hiring a well-known person, it is because doing so can have objective results in sales.
Specifically, what is attempted is that the values ​​and sensations associated with the famous person in question are extended to the image of the product, thus creating a “halo” of positive evaluations that has its origin in what we think of the celebrity. Branding has the halo effect as a means of revitalizing a brand’s image simply by using a famous face.
The power of the first impression
But the halo effect is found beyond large companies: influences the way we judge anyone we meet This has a lot to do with the first impression one makes, something that is known to have a great impact on the image of others that we create in our imagination.
If during the first seconds of a conversation with a person they appear excessively nervous and insecure, even if it is due to factors less related to their way of being than to what is happening to them at that specific moment (for example, because they are about to undergo to an important exam), this characteristic will catch our attention and from that moment on the first impression will become an important factor in the way we value this individual.
The halo effect is a sign that the human brain is willing to fill information gaps with the little data available in order to make uncertainty disappear. If we can judge someone we do not know by the first impression they have made on us, by their profession or by their aesthetics, we do not need to consider the nuances of their personality and the chiaroscuros of their repertoire of skills: We can take what we know about this person, stretch it like a piece of gum and transform this originally modest assessment into the global opinion we have about it.
That is why, every time we stop to judge others, it is worth stopping to think that the facets of someone’s personality and way of being are always more extensive than our predisposition to collect and analyze all the relevant information. that is continually reaching us.
