halo effect

is the psychological phenomenon whereby general impressions act as a predictor of other unrelated and specific impressions.

net: 'the idea that global evaluations about a person (e.g. she is likeable) bleed over into judgements about their specific traits (e.g. she is intelligent)'

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is the tendency to allow one's overall impression of something to influence one's feelings about that entity's particular properties.

The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influences the observer's feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties. It was named by psychologist Edward Thorndike in reference to a person being perceived as having a halo. (wikipedia)

is the tendency to make assumptions based on a single factor: For example, thinking a booming bass voice may be thought to possess strong leadership skills.

The halo effect can be seen whenever a person makes assumptions based on a single factor. For instance, someone with a booming bass voice may be thought to possess strong leadership skills. A beautiful stranger at a dinner party may be automatically assumed to be successful and confident. The halo effect impacts not just social situations, but economic decisions as well.

is thought to be 'doggedly resistant to extinction', however, simply providing raters with more explicit scoring criteria can significantly reduce this effect, suggesting that it is not necessarily only a rater effect, but also a rating scale effect.

Study suggests that the halo effect and impressionistic type marking might be more widespread than has so far been reported. The halo effect is usually seen in the literature as being a rater effect that needs to be reduced or even eliminated by rater training. However, Cascio (1982, cited in Myford and Wolfe, 2003, p. 396) notes that the halo effect is 'doggedly resistant to extinction'. This study has shown that simply providing raters with more explicit scoring criteria can significantly reduce this effect. It could therefore be argued that the halo effect is not necessarily only a rater effect, but also a rating scale effect.

halo effect, n.Definitions

halo effect