car next to his or her
child, blowing smoke
in their direction, this
one negative action
would make most of us
assume that the person has an unfavourable personality. From
this we extrapolate one
bad aspect to cover
the characteristics of
the person as a whole,
which is essentially how
the halo effect works. Of
course, this still doesn’t
explain why more black
people are stopped and
searched than whites,
but it is likely that the
police’s first impression
of a suspect, or the suspect’s initial behaviour
is a contributing factor.
In the United States,
where in some minority
communities the police
are viewed with suspicion and aggression,
the suspect’s response
to the police is more
confrontational, making it more likely that a
halo effect is produced.
The halo effect is very
powerful in helping or
hindering us when we
32
form opinions. In the
classroom a teacher
may see a child acting naughty on the first
day and generalize from
that one situation that
the child is always badly
behaved and treat him
as such for the rest
of the school year. In
court a jury may judge
based on first impression rather than the
facts. The question is,
now that you are aware
of the halo effect, will
it stop you judging by
first impression alone?
The research suggests
that you won’t.