Comments on: The “halo effect”: yet another cognitive Achilles’ Heel http://dangerousintersection.org/2007/11/01/the-halo-effect-yet-another-cognitive-achilles-heel/ Human Animals at the Crossroads of Culture, Science, Religion and Media Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:39:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: xiaogou http://dangerousintersection.org/2007/11/01/the-halo-effect-yet-another-cognitive-achilles-heel/#comment-14914 xiaogou Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:32:21 +0000 http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1740#comment-14914 I think we see the halo effect in politics in that we have a bipartisan system with Democrats voting for Democrats and Republicans voting for Republicans. And heaven forbid if a Democrat votes Republican or a Republican votes Democrat. So, what happens to the independent bloke that has a good head on his shoulder and honestly wants to make a difference. Absolutely nothing as he does not belong to the “right” party. Even our politicians vote along party lines. Even if the bill in question stinks like 10 day old garbage, they vote for it because the party either introduced it or supports it. Another phenomenon is as long as the incumbent does not do anything terribly unpopular there is a good chance he will be voted in because he is the incumbent. I think we see the halo effect in politics in that we have a bipartisan system with Democrats voting for Democrats and Republicans voting for Republicans. And heaven forbid if a Democrat votes Republican or a Republican votes Democrat. So, what happens to the independent bloke that has a good head on his shoulder and honestly wants to make a difference. Absolutely nothing as he does not belong to the “right” party.

Even our politicians vote along party lines. Even if the bill in question stinks like 10 day old garbage, they vote for it because the party either introduced it or supports it.

Another phenomenon is as long as the incumbent does not do anything terribly unpopular there is a good chance he will be voted in because he is the incumbent.

]]> By: Erich Vieth http://dangerousintersection.org/2007/11/01/the-halo-effect-yet-another-cognitive-achilles-heel/#comment-14906 Erich Vieth Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:14:31 +0000 http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1740#comment-14906 More on the halo effect. It seems that we extend it to other people we associate with salient individuals, not just to qualities we associate with salient qualities of a single individual. For instance, how many times have you noticed a lower-status person shadowing a higher status person for a share of the limelight, to bask in that glow? It’s often not a deterrent even if the high status person is a psychologically dysfunctional insensitive confabulator. To give a random example, take politicians. Here’s another example: people associate themselves with winning sports teams (It’s “We won” and “They lost”). People intuitively know what cognitive scientists have known for several decades now: our brains work in connectionist fashion. We excel at pattern matching. Our associative cognitive engine often doesn’t parse out whether someone belongs with someone else. We just associate them together. This is a simple but (for me) effective way of understanding why the halo effect readily occurs. On the halo effect idea, a friend recently nominated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osho" target="_blank">Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh</a> as a good example of a person with a pronounced halo effect. Rajneesh purportedly taught meditation techniques effectively, which earned him numerous devoted followers (including at his commune in Oregon), despite his other, less reputable and honorable activities (e.g., his rampant materialism).  Perhaps I could have picked on some televangelists praised for their eloquence, despite other, unsavory, activities. More on the halo effect. It seems that we extend it to other people we associate with salient individuals, not just to qualities we associate with salient qualities of a single individual. For instance, how many times have you noticed a lower-status person shadowing a higher status person for a share of the limelight, to bask in that glow? It’s often not a deterrent even if the high status person is a psychologically dysfunctional insensitive confabulator. To give a random example, take politicians. Here’s another example: people associate themselves with winning sports teams (It’s “We won” and “They lost”).

People intuitively know what cognitive scientists have known for several decades now: our brains work in connectionist fashion. We excel at pattern matching. Our associative cognitive engine often doesn’t parse out whether someone belongs with someone else. We just associate them together. This is a simple but (for me) effective way of understanding why the halo effect readily occurs.

On the halo effect idea, a friend recently nominated Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as a good example of a person with a pronounced halo effect. Rajneesh purportedly taught meditation techniques effectively, which earned him numerous devoted followers (including at his commune in Oregon), despite his other, less reputable and honorable activities (e.g., his rampant materialism).  Perhaps I could have picked on some televangelists praised for their eloquence, despite other, unsavory, activities.

]]> By: Niklaus Pfirsig http://dangerousintersection.org/2007/11/01/the-halo-effect-yet-another-cognitive-achilles-heel/#comment-14886 Niklaus Pfirsig Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:25:53 +0000 http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=1740#comment-14886 Douglas Adams effectively parodied this concept in "The Hitchhikers Guide" with the bit about the usefulness of a towel. The wording was to the effect that a non-hitcher would be impressed by the fact that a hitcher would keep up with his towel , and therefore assume that he also had other personal care items (e.g. toothbrush, deordorant, haribrush ). The non hitcher would then lend or replace any such items the hitcher seemed to have "lost" Douglas Adams effectively parodied this concept in “The Hitchhikers Guide” with the bit about the usefulness of a towel. The wording was to the effect that a non-hitcher would be impressed by the fact that a hitcher would keep up with his towel , and therefore assume that he also had other personal care items (e.g. toothbrush, deordorant, haribrush ). The non hitcher would then lend or replace any such items the hitcher seemed to have “lost”

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