The Halo Effect
An error in our decision making
One trait might cast a halo
The halo effect is a cognitive bias: people tend to let their judgement about one trait of a person, brand, place, product (or other thing) influence their overall judgement.
When it occurs, a feeling, a thought about one area influence our impressions of other areas. It works in both directions (positive and negative — the latter is also called the reverse halo or the horn effect).
The halo effect is an error in our decision making, a snap judgement. Edward Thorndike coined the term “halo” in 1920: it was about evaluating army officers. People were “unable to treat an individual as a compound of separate qualities and to assign a magnitude to each of these in independence of the others.”
Context dependence plays an important role: it means that the way we react to a stimulus depends on the context (other related concepts: primacy effect, recency effect).
The beauty halo effect
The halo effect is present in many areas of life, e.g.: there is the beauty halo effect. In the original research (Dion et al., 1972) 60 participants were given 3 envelopes (12 different sets of 3 envelopes, assigned randomly). One envelope contained an attractive person’s photo, one contained an average person’s, and an unattractive person’s photo was put in the third one. (This “attractiveness was determined in a previous study).
The result: “Not only are physically attractive persons assumed to possess more socially desirable personalities than those of lesser attractiveness, but it is presumed that their lives will be happier and more successful.” (Dion et. al)
My advice: zoom out
You should gain a holistic view of the whole customer journey. There are many types of touchpoints inside it (not only digital), e.g. talking to a customer support agent. (Btw. touchpoints are steps that represent interactions with the brand).
The way a given touchpoint is designed might influence the customer’s impression of other areas (or the whole brand perception).
Some related concepts:
- The aesthetic-usability effect: NN’s definition: “users’ tendency to perceive attractive products as more usable (here is my UX Knowledge Piece Sketch about it)
- In addition to change aversion, the halo effect might play a role in the perception of a redesign: if the redesigned experience is better (or worse) in some ways, it might make the users perceive other areas as being better (or worse), too. (See my UX Knowledge Piece Sketch)
First impressions
To put it simply: first impressions matter. E.g. imagine a sign-up form that asks for your credit card details before starting a free trial. It might turn into a dark pattern called forced continuity.
Or let’s say the following modal is the first thing your newly installed app displays: “Allow this app to access photos, media and files on your device.” You should ask at the right time: when users clearly understand why the app needs access.
The health halo effect
There is also the health halo effect, for instance if we see the word “organic” on a package, we perceive the product as healthy even when we don’t have evidence that proves it.
“[…] labeling food as organic improves the way it is perceived in a wide range of judgment perceptions, including sensory assessments such as taste and nutritional judgements such as calories and health. Likewise, it has been found that consumers are usually willing to pay a premium price for food identified as organic, both because of its environmental superiority and because of their own expectations of higher product quality.” (Lanero et al.)”
The important thing is that you should not manipulate your users / customers. You might gain short-term benefits, but it’ll hurt your business in the long run.
To Sum Up
One good trait “won’t save” a poor design, and one bad characteristic hopefully won’t ruin the whole user experience, but you should be aware of this bias as a researcher / designer.
For example during a usability test, it is a good practice to apply the “think aloud” protocol: that way, your participants can verbalize their first impressions. As a result, you’ll be able to better evaluate teh results.ű
Some other areas where knowing about this bias is useful:
- client / stakeholder management
- hiring decisions, team management leadershipű
- designing onboarding experiences and other user flows.
Related sketches
- Cognitive Bias — Part 1
- Aesthetic-Usability Effect — What does the research say?
- Change aversion — And its design implications
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Recommended reading & useful links
Dion, K., Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24(3), 285–290.
Thorndike, E. L. (1920). A constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(1), 25–29.
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 250–256.
Schouteten, Joachim J. et al. “Influence of organic labels on consumer’s flavor perception and emotional profiling: Comparison between a central location test and home-use-test.” Food research international 116 (2019): 1000–1009-.
Lanero, A.; Vázquez, J.-L.; Sahelices-Pinto, C. Halo Effect and Source Credibility in the Evaluation of Food Products Identified by Third-Party Certified Eco-Labels: Can Information Prevent Biased Inferences? Foods 2021, 10, 2512.
Batres, C., Shiramizu, V. Examining the “attractiveness halo effect” across cultures. Curr Psychol (2022)
