The halo effectFirst impressions affect our future judgements of people

Hi, I’m Alan.

What do you think of Alan?

He is:

Intelligent – industrious – impulsive – critical – stubborn – envious

Hi, I’m Ben.

What do you think of Ben?

He is:

Envious – stubborn – critical – impulsive – industrious – intelligent

In tests, when people are only shown the descriptions, most people view Alan much more favourably than Ben…

…even though the words describing them are identical!

Why?

We are affected by the first word we read in the list, causing us to interpret future descriptors in a way that maintains coherence with our first impression

This is known as the halo effect

ReferenceForming impressions of personality; Asch, S. E. 1946 The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology Vol 41(3), Pages 258-290