The ‘halo effect’ refers to the subjective bias of which an individual see’s another physically attractive person as having positive personality traits whereas they see an unattractive person as having undesirable personality traits. The aim of the investigation was to see whether the halo effect is present when rating personality traits of ‘attractive’ and ‘unattractive’ people.
The hypothesis of the investigation was ‘There will be a significant difference in the rating of personality traits of ‘attractive’ and ‘unattractive’ pictures of two individuals. The research method for the investigation was experimental using repeated measures design as this was more time efficient. The sampling method used was opportunity sampling whereby 10 pupils from Skipton Girls’ High School took part in the investigation.
Results of this investigation support the experimental hypothesis as there was a significant difference in the rating of personality traits of ‘attractive’ and ‘unattractive’ people. The mean in Condition 1 (attractive then unattractive) is 7. 3 whereas in Condition 2 (unattractive then attractive) it is 4. 2, as a result of these and other statistical methods the hypothesis was accepted as correct. The results of the wilcoxon test were that the critical value of T at p<0.
01 is 5 (n=10), the observed value of T is 0 which is less than the critical value therefore the findings are significant with a 1% probability of chance proving the significance of the results. The conclusion of the investigation was to accept the experimental hypothesis. In conclusion, from this investigation the ‘halo effect’ seems to be evident in everyday life as peoples opinions based on the first meeting are purely superficial and depicted from appearance rather than personality. Introduction.
Social perception is whereby an individual attaches certain attributes to someone through visually perceiving or ‘taking in’ their physical or social characteristics. When an individual first meets somebody the initial judgements and opinions are formed upon subjective thoughts based entirely upon physical appearance rather than personality. The halo effect is a form of subjective bias whereby a person see’s a physically attractive person as having good character traits and an unattractive person as having bad undesirable ones.
A strength of this theory is that many psychologists have carried out research and looked into this phenomenon and found similar results whereby individuals connect good character traits with more physically attractive people. The halo effect was first investigated by Edward Thorndike (1920) who found that when army officers were asked to rate their charges in terms of intelligence, physique, leadership and character there was a high cross correlation between attractiveness and these good character traits. This shows that some form of bias is present when deciding upon the traits of individuals.
Although Thorndike carried out preliminary and pilot studies, he was the first to look into the halo effect therefore meaning that his results will not be as strong as other investigations looking into this, as Thorndike had no evidence to develop or evaluate. Further research has been carried out by Dion, Berscheid & Walster (1972) where participants were asked to rate 3 people ranging from low, medium and high attractiveness. The participants were then asked to provide ratings for several different categories such as personality traits, overall happiness and career success.
The ratings were then averaged out to find out whether the theory that ‘What is beautiful is good’. The results showed that attractiveness is linked to more socially desirable aspects of the personality such as high career success, happiness and positive personality traits. This study shows that not only are physically attractive people assumed to have more socially desirable personality traits but it is also presumed that they will be more happy and successful in their lives.