Blinded by Beauty: How a Psychological Effect Changes Your Perception
Do you care about someone’s attractiveness when you first meet them? You might say it doesn’t affect me at all, but is it true? In truth, our perception is often influenced by various qualities of a person. This influence has a name called the halo effect, and it happens when a positive impression of a person’s attribute affects our perception of their other attributes.
For this reason, The attractiveness of a person affects our other impressions of that person. For example, participants of a study rated physically attractive people as more sociable, mentally healthy, and intelligent.
This attractiveness halo effect is also cross-cultural, a study found similar findings in 45 countries.
So where exactly do we encounter the halo effect?
In School
A study done on students had people rate the attractiveness of 4,500 students, these students were then divided into 3 groups: Below-average, average, and above-average. When compared with online classes, the students in the above-average attractiveness group had higher scores in face-to-face classes.
In Politics
How do you choose a political candidate? Maybe you listen to that candidate’s talk or his promises, but a simpler attribute affects our perception of a candidate.
A study done in the US found that people rated politicians who are more attractive as more persuasive. Furthermore, participants rated the attractive political candidates as more politically knowledgeable than less attractive political candidates.
This is such a critical finding as politicians affect a massive part of our lives and choosing the most adept candidate without being influenced by their appearance can be life-changing for our societies.
With products
The halo effect isn’t limited to humans and can be seen in products too. Marketers use this effect to induce certain positive feelings in you. For example, in a study, participants were asked to rate the taste and predict the calories of food products labeled as either “organic” or “conventional”.
People rated organic labeled food higher than the “conventional” food, even though they were the same. On top of that, people were willing to pay more for the “organic” labeled products. I also fall for this type of branding too, seeing an “ethically sourced” coffee piques my interest and I also feel slightly more positive about that product.
Although you can’t stop the halo effect all the time, being aware of this effect can help you to consider someone’s different qualities and stop before labeling that person.
Can we use the Halo effect to our advantage?
The halo effect isn’t only applicable for attractiveness. Your other qualities such as your enthusiasm or deep knowledge of a topic can still produce a halo for you and change others’ perceptions of you.
So, focus on finding your strengths and the halo effect will start to form for you too.
Thanks for reading.
-Kagan from Wisdom Nova
