The halo effect is that first effect that a person we don’t know has on us during a first meeting, a first interview, or simply by crossing their face in the street. It is a cognitive bias (error of reasoning to which we attach ourselves) affecting in a non-rational way, the perception of people towards other people or entities (political figures, companies, brands, etc.). How does this first impression influence us? Are we right or wrong to listen to our first impressions?

The halo effect is defined by a cognitive bias that affects us when we perceive an unknown person, during a meeting or a simple observation.

A cognitive bias is an error in reasoning that we become attached to, even when everything shows us that we are wrong.

The halo effect can also be the notoriety effect of a company, a brand, a political party. This cognitive bias, as its name suggests, modifies our perception by biasing the impression that this person or entity makes on us, based on the first information that our brain perceives. It can modify it in positive or in negative.

But it goes even further than the first impression. The halo effect, depending on whether it is positive or negative, tends to modify our subsequent behavior towards this person or entity, thereby influencing their own behavior.

For example, if a new recruited colleague is perceived by several people in the same work group as being lazy, this perception would end up conditioning him to work less than the other colleagues … and thus confirm the initial statements felt through cognitive bias at the start, without there being any truth in it.

Conversely, a positive halo effect, for example vis-à-vis a political party, can fundamentally change the situation in election results. The halo effect thus has enormous potential to influence our brain and our behavior. It is also widely used based on scientific data from neuroscience in marketing and politics.

Human beings are endowed with rationality, but in their perceptions of others, rationality always ends up being extinguished in favor of those cognitive distortions, which we believe to be instincts, but which we ultimately experience when making decisions.

Information, however, reaches our brain in a neutral way: but its processing depends on our beliefs, our history, the stereotypes conveyed by society.

Stereotypes are the set of beliefs held about members of a social group, such as ethnic minorities, women or homosexuals. Often derogatory, they are used to generalize facts about a group of people and often condition their future behavior. For example, we may believe that women have less ability to lead; the more we tell them, the less they will have the guts to assert themselves and become leaders.

Consciously or not, we make important decisions (hiring, friendships / love, trusting an individual, voting in elections, buying brands, etc.) about our life, perceiving information selectively, and giving them too much importance to our decision. For example, it has been shown that it is easier to hire someone with an attractive physique. Or, we will tend to listen more to another person with a harmonious face, even if they are telling lies or trying to rip us off. Globally, beauty, in our human belief, is the source of intelligence and goodness.

In addition, from this first selective and incomplete information about a person (their beauty), we will deduce other characteristics, which will be false (they would thus be kind, intelligent, altruistic, etc.). It is therefore not surprising to see elected at the head of an important state, men or women with attractive physique.

There is a positive halo effect, when the first impression on the person is favorable. This cognitive bias tends to interpret favorably what this person says or does.

Conversely, if the first impression is unfavorable, this cognitive bias tends to view the person in a negative light. This is the negative halo effect. We meet it more often than we think, in cases of racism, sexism or grossophobia, or homophobia.

Knowing the halo effect does not allow you to protect yourself from it. According to scientific studies, humans still continue to use selective information and interpret it in a biased way. It can have a serious impact on our lives when we make decisions. But it can also impact the lives of others, by conditioning their behavior (they would not be workers, or not friendly, or not charismatic, etc.).

In order to avoid the halo effect and to avoid being badly perceived, even wrongly, it is advisable to first speak about one’s qualities and skills, when meeting someone, or during an interview. ‘hiring.

Conversely, in order to avoid falling into unjustified judgments, one must often reassess what one thinks of others, until one does not know them well. We might then be surprised that our first impressions of these people ultimately turn out to be wrong. Multiplying the chances and the contacts with the others makes it possible to modify their image towards an often more positive aspect, while keeping in mind a benevolence by default.