We’ve all been told just how important it is to make a good first impression. Whether for a job interview or going out on a first date, physical composure and external features are in fact the first thing a person notices about you. In fact, looking sharp isn’t only noteworthy for your own self-esteem, but in actuality, others associate external appearance with unrelated characteristics as well.
The halo effect, also known as the “physical attractiveness stereotype”, explains this human phenomena of generalizing a person’s character based upon one specific trait, such as looks. When it comes to first impressions, people will unconsciously decide that your looks transfer to personality, intelligence and behavior as well. There are many ramifications for such overt characterization.
In the early 20th century, psychologist Edward Thorndike was the first to study the properties of the halo effect, a term he coined in a 1920 paper titled “The Constant Error in Psychological Ratings.” Thorndike performed an experiment in which he studied the oftentimes misleading effects that first impressions have on how society determines capabilities of individuals. In his experiment, Thorndike asked high ranking military officers to evaluate their subordinate soldiers. He found that there was an unusually high correlation between different characteristics, whether they were mostly positive or negative, which led Thorndike to believe in the power of the halo effect.
Ever since Thorndike’s assessment of human characterization, the practical ramifications of the halo effect are obvious. Still, we may question just how lasting first impressions are.
In actuality, first impressions are different from second or third impressions because your mind forms the strongest associations based off the first encounter. For example, if a teacher presents himself on the first day of class wearing a suit and tie, the students will already have an impression that the teacher is professional and won’t tolerate nonsense from his students. Even if the teacher eventually dresses more casually throughout the semester and the first impression may fade, at the time, it affirmed something about the teacher and cast him in a positive light. The exaggerated impression of seeing the teacher initially in a suit already prepared the students to take both the teacher and the class seriously.
External beauty has the power to project a certain impression which can carry over to someone’s other character traits as well. Fundamentally, there is weakness in beauty alone since it is purely subjective, and more importantly, because it reveals no substance of the individual. However, human nature reveals that first impressions usually are lasting ones, and that the immediate perception of an aesthetically appealing person will color other aspects of one’s perception of them.
A 1972 psychology study asked subjects to report the character of an individual based solely on a picture. However, in reality, the purpose of the study was to determine how much beauty plays a role in first impressions and character assessment. The subjects overwhelmingly assigned the photos of more attractive people with better traits than those less attractive. Generally, if someone is considered attractive, people will assume that person is also smart, interesting, happy and charming. Nonetheless, the opposite may also be true: one can associate more attractive people with possessing negative traits, such as egotistical, uncaring and jealous. The halo effect works in both ways; one element of the person can influence the rest of his characteristics either for the best or for the worst.
External features actually have played a crucial role in modes of human survival: first impressions are an evolutionary adaptation of mankind. If someone is physically attractive, he has an evolutionary advantage since it’s already pre-programmed into the human psyche to associate other positive attributes to that person as well. After all, our ancestors didn’t just trust anyone when it came to survival, and therefore human instinct kicked in so that man could quickly decide who was trustworthy and who wasn’t. Additionally, there have been studies which show that more attractive people are given more second chances when they fall short of their expectations as opposed to their less attractive counterparts.
Of course, the halo effect can go in either direction when it comes to first impressions – and this can also be taken too far. In 2014 there was a case of a criminal taken to the police on charges of unlawful behavior. It happened to be that this criminal by the name of Jeremy Meeks was a very attractive man (to his great advantage), and so when his mug shot was publicized, it went viral on the Internet. There were multiple pages across social media in support of this felon, just because all of his followers fell in love with his good looks – which made them believe that somehow this man wasn’t in fact guilty for the crimes he had been convicted of.
This is the halo effect working at its best. While this man was in many respects “objectively” attractive enough for thousands to vie for his innocence, in truth, his character was in no way attractive, and was still the same criminal, good looks or not.
It is quite important to be aware of the halo effect and its ramifications. Think of any new product and the advertisement for it. Advertisers rely heavily on the halo effect to convince the customer that it’s a product well worth buying. We’re all guilty of buying a box of candies with the most appealing label that catches our eye. The world of advertisement relies on the fact that if we believe the outer appearance is appealing, then we’ll also give the chocolate credit for being tasty too – even though we’ve never tasted it before. So too with meeting new friends or people in the workplace: it’s important to be aware that someone’s first impression will have a great impact on you, which may survive throughout the acquaintance or friendship. For deeper relationships, it’s possible that learning about the person for enough time will actually shed light as to the true character of the person, and not just based off of assumptions.
Unfortunately, the world we live in today is overly-obsessed with looks and physical beauty. The halo effect and this reality pervade the media and entertainment business, as well as penetrate our personal lives and everyday interactions with people. Hopefully, we can overcome our natural impulses to judge others based upon external features that don’t reliably delineate the inner character of the individual.