← all facts
bias
A single positive trait tricks you into seeing perfection.
A 1920 study found that when soldiers were rated high in one physical area, they were systematically rated high in intelligence and leadership too.
The halo effect is your tendency to let one observed quality color your entire impression of a person. You fill in the missing information based on that initial spark of favor.
You are judging a whole person based on a fraction of their character.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Edward Thorndike (1920)
- What the check found
- Edward Thorndike's 1920 paper 'A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings' documented how officers' ratings of subordinates on one trait influenced ratings of unrelated traits.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.