Valentine’s Day is still a fortnight away but let’s talk about love already. More specifically, love at first sight. All of us are fully aware that “love at first sight” is a flawed concept, then why do we find ourselves dreaming of a forever with the person we met for a brief time at a conference or a meeting? A person’s positive physical appearance makes us believe that everything else about him/her has to be positive. We tend to look at that person with rose-tinted glasses of the first rendezvous. This halo effect has been responsible for many a heartbreak. The bias, however, is not restricted to imagining a “halo” around someone, it is also about imagining a person as having “horns”, aka devil, on someone.
Let us assume you are at a coffee shop and a neatly dressed, attractive person enters. Our brain is wired to assume that these physical qualities make the person smart, funny, and good at work. On the other hand, if a shabbily dressed person with unkempt hair were to enter, we would assume him/her to be average or maybe even unorganised and a laggard at work. Reality, however, is possibly different. It is highly likely that the second person is the arduous and intelligent one, with no time to care for physical appearance. But if you were to choose one of them to be hired for your company, you would hire the first one based on the physical appearance. We make presumptions based on first impressions, and unfortunately also base our decisions on those presumptions.
“Halo effect” was coined by American psychologist Edward L Thorndike in 1920, based on an experiment he conducted by asking military officers to “rank” subordinates they had never communicated with before. They were told to rate the subordinates’ traits like leadership and intelligence. The psychologist found that physical appearance was the most influential in determining overall impressions of another person’s character. For instance, a tall and attractive subordinate was perceived as being the most intelligent and the mediocre looking ones were rated average.
The “halo effect” is a critical bias in thought processes as it holds control over our personal as well professional decisions, big and small. It also hinders fair and equitable practices. And hence, it remains one of the biggest challenges towards better decision making. The good news is that overcoming this bias simply needs acknowledging its presence and taking a neutral view. For instance, let’s come back to love, reminding ourselves of the halo effect and deciding to take off those rose-tinted glasses before rushing off to plan a future with someone will surely save your heart a lot of agony. This week, before you put a halo or horns on someone, try pausing and looking beyond the first impressions.
FODDER FOR THE MIND
Watch the brain take decisions
“A team of neuroscientists and engineers have developed a system that can show the neural process of decision making in real time, including the mental process of flipping between options before expressing a final choice.”
Another logic vs emotion argument
We first decide on emotions and then justify with logical reasons. We are even masters at persuading ourselves of the absolute objectivity of our choices. Here is how emotions manipulate us.
The decision-maker’s diet
A healthy diet is absolutely necessary to ward off illnesses and keep the brain powered up. Good Brain likes this diet because it doesn’t suggest drastic changes.