No matter how much people say not to judge by a book’s cover, it’s impossible not to do.
People make predictions, assumptions, and decisions based off of appearances on a daily basis. For instance, I would decide to avoid crossing paths with a man wearing all black at night.
Because judgments are made often, misjudging someone is common, whether it is based off biases, stereotypes, or previous experiences.
The halo effect describes the bias in how we perceive other people. If someone exhibits one good quality, we often assume that their other qualities are positive as well. If a person dresses modestly, we may assume that they are smart. If they are loud and obnoxious, we may assume that they don’t care much about studying.
Having a positive impression of someone causes a halo effect that puts the person in a good light. If they do something that conflicts with this impression, we will become confused and possibly try to justify why they are acting differently.
For example, I had a friend that was quite funny but also knew when to be serious. Because we were both in NJROTC, he was strict when he needed to be and didn’t hesitate to call out any mistakes in movement or behavior.
Because of this initial impression, I believed that he was a good friend until the end of the first semester. I started noticing that he would use racial slurs and I heard from people that were closer to him that he constantly victimizes himself, even when he is in the wrong.
I refused to acknowledge this in the beginning. It is shocking to find out that someone is not the person that you thought they were. I found myself wanting to dismiss his behavior, until my closer friends got involved.
In the middle of the school year, the friend and I had a huge fight because he had deeply hurt one of my other friends. He never apologized for the right thing.
“My mistake. I shouldn’t have trusted you guys in the first place. All everyone does is leave when they find out who I really am. You don’t care about anything, do you?”
I was in awe of how close-minded, insensitive, and selfish someone could be, but even then my naivete caused me to ignore most of his words. Though it did still lurk in the back of my mind.
I had insisted on considering him as a friend until recently, when I quietly, possibly one-sided-ly, cut ties. I don’t talk to him at all anymore.
The halo effect shines a light only on certain qualities, then reflects this light onto other aspects of a person, creating a fake reality. We’d like to think that the way we believe other people are is correct, but, sometimes, we will find out that we are wrong.
