The male undergraduates had to assess the quality of the prose and the competence of the writer on a number of dimensions. In their experiment, 60 male undergraduate students were asked to evaluate an essay supposedly written by a first-year female college student. The results indicated that appearance could impact grading in traditional classrooms the students whose attractiveness was rated as above average procured significantly lower grades in on-line classes wherein the instructors could not observe the appearance of the students.Ī study conducted by Landy and Sigall (1974) demonstrated the impact of the halo effect upon male judgments of female academic competence.
The results indicated that the teachers’ expectations concerning the child’s academic future were significantly associated with the child’s attractiveness.Īnother more recent study compared the influence of attractiveness on grading in university courses wherein the instructors either could or could not observe the appearance of their students (Hernandez-Julian & Peters, 2017). In the experiment, the teachers were provided with objective information such as a child’s academic potential along with a photo of an attractive or unattractive girl or boy.
For example, a teacher might assume that a well-behaved student is also bright and motivated before they have objectively evaluated the student's capacity in these areas.Ī research study conducted in 1968 by Rosenthal and Jacobson discovered that teachers generally develop expectations for their students based not merely on the school record but also on their physical appearance. In the classroom, teachers are prone to the halo effect error when evaluating their students. While the former which works in the positive direction is the halo effect, the latter which works in the negative direction, as we would discuss later, is called the horn effect. Likewise, according to the psychological concept of ‘the halo effect,’ one patent attribute of a certain person leads an observer to draw a generalizing conclusion about that person (Ellis, 2018).Ī single positive quality of a person may induce a positive predisposition toward every aspect of that person while one negative attribute of that person may induce an overall negative impression of that person. These paintings, in effect, lead the observer to form favorable judgments about their participants. Countless paintings from the Middle Ages as well as the Renaissance period depict notable men and women with the heavenly light of the halo. It refers to a circle of light which is placed above or around the head of a holy person or saint in order to honor his or her sanctity. The word ‘halo’ stems from a religious concept. For example, if you perceived a person to be warm and friendly, we will attribute a number of other associated traits to that person without any knowledge that they are true, such as they are generous. The halo effect is a cognitive attribution bias as it involves the unfounded application of general judgment to a specific trait (Bethel, 2010 Ries, 2006). The halo effect refers to the tendency to allow one specific trait or our overall impression of a person, company or product to positively influence our judgment of their other related traits.