Halo effect
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The halo effect occurs when a person's positive or negative traits seem to "spill over" from one area of their personality to another in others' perceptions of them.
When soldiers were asked to rate their commanding officers in an early psychology experiment conducted by Edward L. Thorndike, he found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits. People seem to rarely think of each other in mixed terms; instead we seem to see them as universally roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement. Solomon Asch also performed research in this area.
A common example of the halo effect is when a person is assumed to be smart or nerdy because he or she is wearing spectacles. Another is that good-looking schoolchildren are assumed to be cleverer.
In marketing, a halo effect is one where the perceived positive features of a particular item extend to a broader brand. It has been used to describe how the iPod has had positive effects on perceptions of Apple Computer's other products.
See also
References
- Asch, S. E. (1946). "Forming impressions of personality." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 41, 258-290
- Thorndike, E. L. (1920). "A Constant Error on Psychological Rating." Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. IV, 25-29