Halo effect

The halo effect is a cognitive bias where an individual tends to favor all qualities of a person due to being influenced by one positive quality of that person. This can happen without evaluating their other characteristics or verifying if they genuinely excel in them.

Example (1): Some teachers are inadvertently inclined to award higher marks to students who write their exams with beautiful and well-organized handwriting.

Example (2): Some investors employ a shining CEO from a specific industry to take up the same position in another sector. Although their success in the first industry doesn’t guarantee success in the second. This reminds me of an Arabic figure who held the position of minister in several ministries, as if he were the genius of his time and era.

Example (3): There’s a stereotype about blue-eyed — foreign — men. As long as the man has blue eyes, many assume he’s distinguished. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the English teacher, Patrick, who taught in Egypt and was a London cobbler (shoe repairer). You can find it at this link for those unfamiliar with this story.

In idea evaluation competitions, it’s observed that some non-distinguished ideas might advance to the final stages simply because the presenter is well-known and has a certain aura in a specific field. The judges then abandon the evaluation of the idea in favor of evaluating the man himself.

Performance evaluation competitions now isolate the judges from the contestants to ensure they pass their judgments objectively, without being influenced by the contestant’s appearance, color, race, or religion.

The aura of religious figures is perhaps the strongest in affecting the general public in our Eastern societies. Some of the masses exalt religious scholars, believing they are infallible, while others go to the extreme of deeming them as God’s saints, almost sacrificing themselves out of ignorance.

Another popular type related to this effect is the handsomeness and attractiveness of a person. Sociologists suggest that this can help in career advancement without any notable reason other than attractiveness, height, or charisma. Even with ordinary skills, these individuals may outshine others with distinguished abilities simply because they don’t possess such distinctive innate qualities. Therefore, the element of persuasion in most advertisements is by choosing renowned figures to convince the consumer.

I conclude by saying that all you need to believe is that perfection belongs to God. Just because someone excels in one area doesn’t mean they excel in everything. This was the approach of our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, when distributing roles among the companions according to the area each excelled in. So, be wary of falling under the influence of the halo effect when judging people.

The topic idea is extracted from the book The Art of Thinking Clearly — by Rolf Dobelli | page 113. The examples are my own.

Originally written and published in Arabic on Linkedin on 7 July 2015.