By Donna S. Allman
“First impressions count”
This is called the Halo & Horn Effect, where one person’s judgment about someone else is influenced by a first impression. A good first impression of a person is called the Halo Effect and the bad impression is the Horns Effect. It is a psychological concept that is evident in many areas of life and business.
The concept is an analysis of the unconscious biases that we have towards people and things that we don’t even realize we have. The result is that if we think the person is “a great guy” at our first meeting, then we unconsciously attribute specific traits to that person, for which we have no proof. We might then say, “he’s also really clever”.
Apple iPod Halo
The Apple iPod is the perfect example where the popularity of one successful product encouraged consumers to buy other products from the same company. The overwhelming success of the iPod which became a huge success in the mid-2000s led the way for unreserved acceptance by purchasers of the iPhone and the iPad. For five years following the iPod’s release, Mac sales doubled in a declining industry. Brand marketers know well how this works, using a concept called brand equity with the idea to increase sales for a company.
Interestingly, the Halo Effect also works internally as well. Employees of these companies feel appreciated, they feel that the company makes better decisions and that there is a long-term focus in which they are included.
Physical Attraction
Basically, the attractiveness of a product or a person outshines other characteristics and affects our perception, even if they are totally unrelated. Physically attractive people are generally judged as competent; similarly, celebrities and actors are seen as smart (which is debatable, since their whole career is based on memorizing someone else’s words!)
Public Perception of a Product
Fashion designers can charge exorbitant amounts of money because their label is highly regarded, even if it is a mundane article of clothing. People will clamour to get it. It is no coincidence that celebrities are used to market products. This public perception can be applied to the automotive industry. How often do people unconsciously buy a make of car because “they make great cars” and are surprised if a model turns out to be a lemon or have some major flaw. The Aston Martin DB5 of James Bond fame led everyone to believe that it was the fastest vehicle on four wheels (and a magnet for women) but, in reality, its performance was quite sluggish if pushed to sports car speeds. One make of a car is seen as superior to another; however, when you pop the hood, don’t be surprised to see the same components from the same manufacturers from one vehicle to the next.
The Horns Effect or Devil’s effect is the other side of the coin. Using a marketing example, an unattractive package for a food item may lead us to believe that it tastes bad.
Reviewer Bias
There are further examples of the halo effect in business. Charismatic individuals in an organization, who have the gift of the garb, tend to move quickly up the corporate ladder even if they don’t have the technical or required leadership skills. If they are articulate, then they simply must be “a great guy”.
The halo and horn effect manifests itself in the organization all too often. These biases appear in the performance appraisal process, because of the halo effect, the interviewer may form or already have a generalized good impression of an employee and rate the employee highly on all the given criteria even if this is unwarranted for other sections in the appraisal. For example, you may be impressed with how a particular staff member deals with the public and then overlook repeated tardiness. Mediocre performance is overlooked if the reviewer has a personal liking for the employee.
The halo effect may cause the reviewer to commit another error, the recency effort, where the most recent act is foremost in their mined and then the bias you feel colours the appraisal. An appraisal is an exercise that reviews a person’s performance over a stipulated time and not just a few flashes of brilliance or bad behavior. Once incident over a year should not summarize an employee’s performance.
Managers Beware
Managers may also be guilty of the “halo effect” when they have a rapport with an employee. The manager has an affinity with an employee, who treats him nicely in return, so he or she gets a good evaluation despite a mediocre performance because of the manager’s personal biases.
In project management, this halo effect similarly affects how the project manager views a person, thing, or process based on a general or single impression. To counteract this the project manager needs to use independent data to the project to avoid this bias. Failure to do this can be very costly in the long run if the analysis is flawed.
What of Stereotyping?
The halo effect is closely related to stereotyping. Stereotyping refers to how we categorize people based on our own categorization and opinions on a number of things. Our feelings about race, nationality, sex, religion, age, physical ability, weight, intellect, etc. can affect how we view and review others.
The Halo & Horns Effect concept gives one the impression of good and evil.
One shi
ning example/halo is us
ed to paint a person with a series of traits. This is unfortunate and a bias that a professional need to consciously fight against. Bias in the workplace can come at a price later if we have underestimated a product/project, overestimated someone’s ability, disregarded a great strategy or employee because of unfair negative bias. As professionals, we cannot do this. Half the battle is recognizing that we have biases in order that they may be countered.
