Halo Effect

The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias whereby the perception of one trait (i.e. a characteristic of a person or object) is influenced by the perception of another trait (or several traits) of that person or object. An example would be judging a good-looking person as more intelligent.

Edward L. Thorndike was the first to support the halo effect with empirical research. In a psychology study published in 1920, Thorndike asked commanding officers to rate their soldiers; he found high cross-correlation between all positive and all negative traits. People seem not to think of other individuals in mixed terms; instead we seem to see each person as roughly good or roughly bad across all categories of measurement.

Halo Effect Examples

Regardless of planting choices, few farmers escape genetically modified crops. More than four-fifths of U.S. soybean, corn, and cotton acres are planted with them, according to The Associated Press, but the remaining acres may also be affected. New research published in Science suggests there is a “halo effect” for modified corn crops. Their special, modified traits kill off pests like the European corn borer, but in doing so they also help the “refuge” acres of non-modified crops and have allegedly saved farmers billions. The finding illustrates the side effects of modified crops–in this case, profitable ones. But the “halo effect” is also a sign of how agribusiness’s innovations in recent decades can cause unexpected changes:

Corn that’s been genetically engineered to resist attacking borers produces a “halo effect” that provides huge benefits to other corn planted nearby, a new study finds. Since the borers that attack the genetically modified crops die, there are fewer of them to go after the non-modified version.

Given that the corn borer has cost U.S. farmers $1 billion a year, the economic benefits are dramatic, according to the report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

The genetically modified plants, called Bt corn, have had an economic benefit of $6.9 billion during the past 14 years in the five Upper Midwest corn-producing states studied, concluded the researchers. They were led by William Hutchison, head of the entomology department at the University of Minnesota, and Paul Mitchell, an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin.

They said they were surprised to find that non-Bt corn acres actually reaped 62 percent of the benefit, or $4.3 billion. That’s because of the pest-control effect and because non-Bt seed is cheaper.

“We knew there was a benefit but we didn’t realize it was going to be that high,” Hutchison said in an interview.

Books about Halo Effect on Amazon.com

Book name:The Halo Effect: … and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers [Hardcover]

This tart takedown of fashionable management theories is a refreshing antidote to the glut of simplistic books about achieving high performance. Rosenzweig, a veteran business manager turned professor, argues that most popular business ideas are no more than soothing platitudes that promise easy success to harried managers. Consultants, journalists and other pundits tap scientifically suspect methods to produce what he calls “business delusions”: deeply flawed and widely held assumptions tainted by the “halo effect,” or the need to attribute sweeping positive qualities to any company that has achieved success. Following these delusions might provide managers with a comforting story that helps them frame their actions, but it also leads them to gross simplification and to ignore the constant demands of changing technologies, markets, customers and situations. Mega-selling books like Good to Great, Rosenzweig argues, are nothing more than comforting, highbrow business fables. Unfortunately, Rosenzweig hedges his own principles for success so much that managers will find little practical use for them. His argument about the complexity of sustained achievement, and his observation that success comes down to “shrewd strategy, superb execution and good luck,” may end up limiting the market for this smart and spicy critique. (Feb. 6)
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