Halo effect

The 'Halo effect' is when a person's perception of another is influenced by their appearance. Most commonly attractive people are judged as having a more desirable personality than someone of average appearance.

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 because he or she is wearing spectacles. Another is that good-looking schoolchildren (or a good looking person versus a more plain looking person) are assumed to be more clever.

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.

The halo effect may or may not have anything to do with the physical appearance of the person. It is equally applicable to any attribute one holds as valuable. A person who is good at “X” is deemed to be good at “Y” even if the two items are not related. Of course, the halo effect does not actually confer accuracy, it simply addresses that the reasoning is flawed