The Halo Effect

“She knows nothing about this person’s management skills. All she is going by is the halo effect from a good presentation.”

This quote ends a chapter in Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow on jumping to conclusions. A fascinating chapter in an enlightening book! ​

Daniel describes how easily we jump to conclusions about things even when we have very little information. In fact, our brain is lazy and we happily go about life relying on small amounts of information on which to make our decisions. Lots of information represents too much hard work and we would rather rely on our fast system 1 part of our brain that jumps to conclusions than engage our slow System 2 part of our brain.

The halo effect is one example of this. We have a tendency to like everything about a person once we have formed a good first impression of them. This is known in psychology as the halo effect and it is hugely influential on our thinking. So instead of taking the time and energy to  gather more information and objectively use it to form a decision - our brains take a short cut and jumps to conclusions. This is also true if we form a bad first impression of somebody.

One problem with this is it’s unconscious. We are not conscious of system 1’s fast thinking - it happens immediately and unconsciously. In contrast, we are very aware when we engage in slow system 2 thinking. This is the part of the brain that makes conscious, thought-through decisions. And it’s hard work! Jumping to conclusions can be efficient if the conclusions are correct. However, jumping to conclusions when your decisions will have major consequences is very risky.

So what can we do? Firstly, just being aware of the halo effect helps us spot when we might be influenced by it. Then consciously engage your brain in evaluating the information before you, i.e. engage your slow system 2 part of your brain. You will resist as your brain is naturally lazy! But stick with it for important decision-making. You will be thankful later.

So going back to the quote above:

“She knows nothing about this person’s management skills. All she is going by is the halo effect from a good presentation.”

In an interview situation, don’t rely on the skills you see in front of you to jump to conclusions about their other skills. Engage your slow thinking and seek the information that is missing.

To finish, Thinking, Fast and Slow is an amazingly informative book with a ridiculous number of findings that will be useful in all aspects of our lives. So we’ll write a number of blogs summarising key lessons from the book to help you in your wonder womanness.

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