Meaning and influences of The Halo Effect

Have you ever judged someone by just taking in consideration one physical aspect of that person? Has that judgment been a positive statement? If it is, you would need to know what the Halo effect is. This effect consists in making good judgments about a person base on one of his or her character´s aspect. To make clear, who have never listen or think that beautiful people are smart, or that people who wear glasses are nerds. I am pretty sure that you have criticized someone by using some of these statements. Therefore, you have used the Halo Effect to draw conclusions about a person. This effect can be present in different aspects of our lives like job, education, government, media, etcetera, and it also can influence our everyday behavior or decisions.

According to recent research, there have been people who have found that this effect can be present in the media. Reporters and journalist are more likely to report the news of attractive people rather than no eyed-catching people. The article “Better-Looking Politicians Get More Media Coverage” published by ScienceDaily explains and presents the results of these studies, which have been performed by the University of Haifa’s Department of Communication. The results of these researchers have shown that better-looking, political tenure, seniority and army rank get higher frequency of TV news coverage. With this statement, we can infer that not only the appearance counts, but also what kind of people merit respect for inhabitants inside the society.

However, another article from Science Daily entitled “Hiring Practices Influenced by Beauty” explains that the decisions of what people hire are being affected by The Halo Effect, too. This article makes clear that hiring practice...

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...you establish about a person based on one physical aspect, which is the contrary of The Devil Effect. As I said, this can interfere with people’s lives in their jobs, education, or media’s attention. However, if you want to judge someone, I recommend you to know the person better in order to make a rational conclusion about him or her, and not use the Devil or Halo Effect.

Works Cited

Montell, Gabriela. “Do Good Looks Equal Good Evaluations?” Chronicle of Higher Education 15 Oct. 2003. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. .

“Better-Looking Politicians Get More Media Coverage.” sciencedaily.com. ScienceDaily, 9 July 2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2010. < www.sciencedaily.com...>.

“Hiring Practices Influenced by Beauty.” sciencedaily.com. ScienceDaily, 3 Jan. 2008. Web.www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206124838.htm>.