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Fabiola Etornam Amedo

Esi Ansah

Negotiation

SME - Analysis

13th April, 2011.

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

When some people think of Michael Jackson, they remember the greatest pop-star that
ever lived and a media that destroyed that reputation (Causey & Goetz, 2011). When we think of
the Pope, we think of holiness and everything heavenly; and when we think of mothers, we think
of care, love and protection. As humans, fixed in a constantly changing world, we tend to believe
what we see with our eyes. That is, we make more sense of things with the proof that we have
and are able to reach conclusions from them. Also, as individuals, we draw conclusions quickly
and relate with others based on observations of one or two of their actions. The good perceptions
about people that we have used to characterize them, blurring every other possibility and hence
forcing us to perceive them through only one frame, is what has come to be commonly termed as
the Halo Effect.

The Halo Effect is a psychological construct that was first developed by American
psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike in 1920. In his paper, A Constant Error in Psychological
Ratings, Thorndike revealed that from a study conducted in 1915, of employees of two large
industrial corporations, assessments of an employee’s distinct traits such as intelligence,
reliability, punctuality and technical skill, were highly and evenly correlated. This high
correlation according to him appeared to be as a result of those rating being unable to consider
the different aspects of each individual’s nature and rate them independently; without the rating
of one trait interfering with that of the other. Those rating were seemingly affected by a high
inclination to generalise an individual as either good or inferior. These clouded findings made
way for the judgements about the employee’s individual traits to generalise their performance.
Employees with one or two good traits had good ratings. (Thorndike, 1920). In plain terms, a
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halo which is a ring of light around the head of a saint (Encarta Dictionaries, 2009) signifying all
that is good and holy is drawn around the head of the person who possesses good traits.

The Halo Effect which is a perceptual error causes people to commit systematic errors
that affect their decision making and information processing. In the case of negotiation, these
systematic errors include the endowment effect; self-serving biases, reactive devaluation,
mythical fixed-pie beliefs, the winner’s curse among others. These systematic errors are
collectively termed cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are those errors concerning our perception
and understanding of information and these arise as a result of how that information has been
perceived, filtered or framed (Lewicki et al, 2011) as compared to perceptual errors which are
errors concerning how we make sense of things. With respect to how information is perceived
through the halo effect, an example is when a person is considered as friendly because he/she
tends to smile a lot. In this instance, the onlookers who are the judges of this person have
perceived the individual under observation in only one frame thus closing their eyes to any other
perception about the person. This therefore makes room for repetitive errors and poor
generalisation of a person’s performance.

In contrast to the Halo Effect is the Devil Effect or the Horn Effect. This phenomenon
though very rampant in society does not gain as much appreciation as the halo effect. This
concept outlines that on making a first impression, when an individual is low on one trait or does
not give a good impression of himself, the individual is perceived as low on every other trait or
ability. (The Halo Effect, 2009). There are quite a number of instances in which the devil’s effect
affects individuals. For instance, in a school, students who are late to school would be seen as
irresponsible and negligent towards their academic work by a teacher or an outsider. Or, in the
case of a worker who is late to work on the first day, he/she would be generally perceived to be
negligent towards his/her duties.

The Halo Effect can manifest itself in various ways. These include Superficial
Misperception, Social Bias, Demographic Bias, Flawed Logic, Contrast Sensitivity and the Yard
Effect among others. These various conditions stem from the Halo effect and are very evident in
our world today. For instance, the Superficial Misperception is the case where we draw
conclusions about an individual based on a certain picture we have painted of them. Instead of
observing their behaviours, we draw conclusions which tend to have no bearing in reality. For
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instance, when I was a younger, I used to think that an English man or woman, with an English
accent definitely spoke good English. The devil effect could also be applied in this instance
where I perceived non-English to be poor English speakers. With the Social Bias, an individual
who associates him/herself with respectable people deemed to possess positive traits is also
presumed to possess those same characteristics in the some birds-of-the-same-feather-flock-
together fashion (Halo Effect, 2009).

Another way the Halo Effect could manifest itself is through the Demographic Bias. This
refers to making observations about people who belong to a particular group or a society; hence
conclusions are made about them without regarding their individual traits or evaluating the
individual distinctively. For example, the error of simply seeing someone as a Negro, a
Frenchman, or even a Kwahu man rather than focusing on the individual separately from the rest
of the group. Flawed Logic also deals with the case where we notice one or two characteristics of
a person due to social bias, cultural norms or personal experience. For example on reaching
conclusions that an Ashanti man is hard-working and ambitious based on stereotypes circulating
in the Ghanaian society, a woman thought of going in for an Ashanti man to marry (Lola, 2010).
These various instances which show how the Halo Effect can be manifest are quite similar to
each other and show the extent to which the Halo Effect has affected individuals’ judgements of
others.

The term Halo Effect is also widely used in the business world, specifically in marketing
and in the theory of consumer behaviour. When consumers are biased towards some products
due to a favourable experience that they had with other products made by the same manufacturer,
they seem to make their own inferences about the product and thus have good faith and trust in
the product. For example, a customer would purchase a product say, product A from a certain
company T, not because of the benefits the customer is expecting to derive from product A but
simply because the consumer had a favourable experience with a certain product B made by the
same company T. From this breakdown, it can clearly be seen that the newly purchased item,
that is product B would be gaining ground in the market. A typical real life example that can be
linked to this phenomenon is the relationship between Mac notebooks and the iPod both
manufactured by Apple Inc. After the release of the iPod, speculations grew concerning an
increase in the sale of Apple’s Mac laptops due to the success of the iPod. The speculation
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stemmed from the Halo Effect, since customers who enjoyed their experience with the iPod
would purchase a Mac computer because it was produced by Apple (Halo Effect).

In negotiation, the Halo Effect which is a perceptual error affects the way negotiators
process information about the other party. Halo effects are most likely to occur in perception
when negotiating, in cases where a negotiator has very little experience with a person along some
particular dimension, in situations where the other party is well known and also where the other
party’s qualities tend to have strong moral insinuations (Lewicki et al, 2011). Other perceptual
errors include stereotyping, selective perception and projection. Though similar to halo
effects, stereotyping is formed based on one’s affiliation with a particular social or demographic
group and is rather difficult to change. Also with stereotyping, the characteristics of a common
group are conferred on an individual who belongs to the same group, whereas the halo effect
occurs when a good attribute of an individual is used to generalize about other attributes of that
same person.

Selective perception and projection however, as opposed to halo effects and stereotyping
are those forms of perceptual distortions that deal with anticipating certain qualities, trends and
traits in another person (Lewicki et al, 2011). Selective perceptions are made when a perceiver
singles out or captures particular information that strengthens a previous claim he/she has made.
In this case, the perceiver filters out information that does not fall in line with that particular
information. Selective perceptions tend to perpetuate stereotypes and halo effects. For instance,
when a stranger assists a woman with her luggage, that stranger is perceived to be very helpful
and kind. This does not necessarily mean that in every such instance, the stranger would help
out. In such a case, the perceiver, that is the woman would reinforce her claims that the said
stranger is helpful and would therefore expect him to assist her in every other situation.
Projections occur when people tend to consign others with their own attributes and feelings
(Lewicki et al, 2011).

Perceptual errors, most especially the halo effect are a major concern because they lead to
biases and errors in perception and deeply affect subsequent communication (Lewicki et al,
2011). As humans, who are very unpredictable, it would be dangerous and erroneous to
generalise about someone’s attributes simply because of one good thing that has been observed
about the person. In addition to this, the halo effect is a lazy way of forming judgements about an
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individual and also fails to reflect the true nature of things. The halo effect also causes us to
make over-estimations and can to a large extent display one’s incompetence and inability to
make good analysis. For instance, in the case of Edward Lee Thorndike’s study of how
employees of different corporations were rated, those rating generalised the employees’
performance as good, simply because of one or two traits that were good. The evaluators failed
to consider the different aspects of the individual; that is evaluating the employees’ different
traits independently of each other. Moreover halo effects could easily switch over to devil effects
and devalue one’s hard work, reputation and dedication where one has been very good and
consistent throughout a period of time. Take for example, a renowned multi-national corporation
such as Coca-Cola. If a can of Coca-Cola was consumed by many children, and resulted in their
death, Coca-Cola would be recognised as irresponsible even by those who have benefited
immensely from the company.

In their paper, Separating Perceptual Distortions from Affective Overtones: An

Application to Consumer Aesthetics, Joel Huber and Morris B. Holbrook laid out a general
approach to separating perceptual dimensions from various insinuations through a study they
conducted. They arrived at the conclusion that when a subject is exposed to the objects or has
firsthand experience with the objects under study, the objects being judged on a large number of
differential scales, “global evaluation can be factored out in a way that removes the feedback
effects of preference on perceptual ratings and thus results in outcomes that are relatively free of
common distortion from shared affective overtones” (Holbrook & Huber, 1975).

In my opinion, history offers a clear verdict to what exactly can be perceived as

information. Usually, well-known people are seen through a different frame in the eyes of
various people. Michael Jackson is referred to as the King of Pop by some who can still relate to
the distress of ill-spoken words against him by media (Causey & Goetz, 2009). Moreover, as
humans who possess the freewill to think as we like and as social beings for that matter, our
perception of what goes on around us is very essential, in that it helps us to simply make sense of
things. But how far do we go and what errors are we willing to make? Also, there are often
instances where we tend to keep good impressions of people based on one good attribute of
theirs hence ruling out every other possibility and forgetting that they are human; we draw halos
around their heads as if they were saints. We cannot measure how entirely good or bad a person
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or something is, but we can only wait, clutching on to any information within our reach to draw
conclusions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Causey K. & Goetz A. (July 2009) A Natural History of the Modern Mind: The Halo Effect in
Overdrive. The Halo Effect, Michael Jackson and Mortality. Psychology Today. Retrieved
6/04/2011from<http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-history-the-modern-
mind/200907/the-halo-effect-in-overdrive>

Encarta Dictionaries (2009) [Computer Software] US: California Microsoft Corporation

Halo Effect: Investopedia Retrieved 6/04/2011 from<http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/halo-

effect.asp>

Holbrook, B., M. & Huber J. (Mar., 1979) Separating Perceptual Dimensions from Affective
Overtones: An Application to Consumer Aesthetics. The Journal of Consumer Research, (5), pg.
272-283. Retrieved 2/04/2011 from <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2488680> > The University of
Chicago Press

Lewicki, J. R., Saunders, M. D., & Barry B. (2011). Essentials of Negotiation. Cognitive Biases
in Negotiation (5th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lola Stereotypes – We Must Have A Good Laugh At Our Own Expense August 1st 2010.
Retrieved 8/04/2011 from
<http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=187170> Ghana
Web

The Halo Effect (1998-2009) Retrieved 2/04/2011 from

<http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Halo_Effect.html> Tampa, Florida: Envisions
Software

Thorndike, L. E. (1920) A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 4, 25-29. Retrieved 2/04/2011 from <http://www.the-halo-
effect.com/links/ThorndikeHalo1920.pdf>