The 

Halo Effect
Definition and Background
What exactly is the Halo Effect?

A psychology textbook provides a "simplistic" definition of the Halo effect as a subjective

bias about a person's one outstanding trait extending to influence the total judgment of that
person.

E. L. Thorndike's 1920 paper titled "A Constant Error on Psychological Rating", published in
Journal of Applied Psychology first documented this perception error (wahrnehmungsfehler)
with regard to rating employees.  This has also been followed up by Phil Rosenzweig's book
on the same topic called The Halo Effect... and Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive
Managers.

Thorndike therein defined the halo effect as "a problem that arises in data collection when
there is carry-over from one judgment to another."

He further expanded that it is "...an extension of an overall impression of a person (or one
particular outstanding trait) to influence the total judgment of that person. The effect is to
evaluate an individual high on many traits because of a belief that the individual is high on
one trait. Similar to this is the 'devil effect,' whereby a person evaluates another as low on
many traits because of a belief that the individual is low on one trait which is assumed to be
critical."

So, to clarify, if possible, when an individual is found to possess one desirable trait, then
that individual is automatically assumed to have many other desirable traits as well. A kind
of an "angelic halo" surrounds the person, in the eyes of the beholder, and they can do no
wrong. If a person is bestowed with good physical beauty, then this person is also presumed
to possess a host of other positive attributes as well, such as social competence, intellectual
competence, and personal adjustment.

The inverse phenomenon called the "Devil Effect," and sometimes the "Horn Effect", doesn't
seem to get as much attention, even though its impact is just as prevalent in society. Here,
if a person seems particularly deficient in a critical trait, then that person is automatically
assumed to be deficient in many other traits as well, related or otherwise. For example, an
employee who is constantly "late" to work (perhaps due to other non-work responsibilities in
the morning) is assumed to be negligent in their work-related duties, not committed to the
job/company/project, and perhaps even lazy overall.

Ultimately, these faulty biases may prove to become factual due to the Pygmalion effect, or
"self-fulfilling prophecy ", further reinforcing future errors in perception due to bias and
predisposition by the observer. The person working long hours (perhaps compensating for
technical incompetence), assumed to be a good worker is given greater opportunity and
thus attains greater, albeit undue, career advancement (cf: The Peter Principle).
Conversely, the worker who dresses shabbily is assumed to care little about their job, and
therefore bypassed for greater opportunity when the situation arises, regardless of
suitability or capacity otherwise.  Essentially, is phenomenon is a psycho-social application
of the Law of Proximity, whereby certain unrelated observations, found in the comparable
subjects in a narrow sample set, are assumed to have a high correlation, when, in fact, no
such correlation exists.

Application
There are a number of different ways in which the psychology of the halo effect may
manifest:

 Superficial Misperception

Instead of seeing the observable behaviors of a person, instead we see a certain

picture. From this picture we draw conclusions about them which have no bearing in
reality.

 Social Bias

A person who is highly connected or good friends with those deemed to possess
positive traits is erroneously assumed to possess those same good traits in "birds of
a feather flock together" fashion.

 Demographic Bias

If we know the societal role or other demographic information, the person targeted
by the halo effect (or devil effect) will be perceived as "just like" all others who have
held a similar role. We do not see the distinctions between people of this group and
instead simply see:

Teacher
Congressperson
Frenchman
Negro
Blue Collar Worker
Inner City Dweller

 Flawed Logic

Noticing only one or two characteristics, unrelated conclusions are drawn based upon
personal experience, social bias, or group norming.

People who smile are honest. 

Blondes are unintelligent.

 Contrast Sensitivity

Within a person and/or a person's group, certain desirable characteristics are

noticeably absent. For example, when there is a superstar in a group, it's very easy
to misinterpret the actions of those who would otherwise be deemed at least average
performers as poor performers, simply because of the context of the evaluation.
  Similarity Sensitivity

With a person or group, characteristics are noticed which are very similar to our own
or those we respect greatly. While similar (no pun intended) to the Social Bias listed
above, instead of having a desirable social standing, instead this person possesses
actual traits which are noticeably similar to those who have created a strong bias in
the observer. So, while the person is obviously a distinct and unique individual, the
fact that he reminds you of your shiftless, no good, brother-in-law, impacts further
observations. 

 Lasting First Impressions

The very first impression left with the observer overrides all subsequent impressions,
until a very strong and distinct impression is made to alter the existing path. The
first impression is a psychology concept similar to that of inertia or momentum in the
physical sciences.

 Yard Effect (or Hof Effekt)

The perception of a person orients itself at few conspicuous characteristics. All other
characteristics are ignored. The effect describes the tendency, in order to form a
certain characteristic of a person a "yard" and derive from it spreading acceptance. A
well dressed lady also as wealthy and more educated than the same lady in a
Jogging suit.

Consequences
Ultimately, the halo effect, much like many psychology concepts, can be used as a tool for
motivating others to a desired end, or a phenomenon to specifically be alert to when
relating to and evaluating situations and people.

Left alone, the halo effect can negatively impact all areas of management.

Interviewers can wrongly infer that a candidate has a slew of required characteristics or
attributes, simply because the candidate exhibited others which were desirable.

Managers responsible for employee ratings, can let the strong rating of one critical factor
influence the ratings for all other factors exhibit the halo effect. The halo effect is also
demonstrated when an overall global impression influences ratings. This problem occurs
with employees who are friendly (or unfriendly) toward you or especially strong (or weak) in
one skill.

Having clear and specific ratings standards can help avoid the halo effekt. Another means to
traverse the hazards of the haloeffect is completely assess the performance on one
performance factor before moving on to the next factor. Finally, simply being aware of the
halo effekt and how it works may afford one the opportunity more objective judgment and
to be able to see if its harmful effects are at work.

Making Friends with the Halo Effect

But just as selective perception is an adversary of logical judgement, so is it an ally of a
strong negotiator or marketing professional. Since both of these professions leverage the
use of "street psychology", any weapon to be found that can be used to ones advantage is
fair game.  So the power of the Halo Effekt is certainly enticing in these areas, but how does
one harness the power of the HaloEffect?

NLP rapport building techniques such as pacing exponentially increase the perception that
the pacer is very similar to the observer.  This can cause the observer of these pacing
tactics to view a halo around the pacer and more readily act in the manner desired by the
NLP practitioner.

Leveraging well known social biases can also be an effective means of securing favor.  For
example, people who wear glasses are frequently perceived as more intelligent.  Doctors
with white lab coats and stethoscopes are perceived as more capable.  Someone who is
"dressed for success" cares more about doing a good job.  And the list goes on.  Rather
than fighting these socialized norms, catering to them can allow one to slingshot from
existing biases and harness their power to attain a more desirable decision from another
party.

A few well known pieces of advice are actually invitations to leverage the haol effekt.

"You are known by the company you keep."  This nugget of wisdom just comes right out
and says it.  Others are judging you, and one of the factors they consider is your peer
group.  By maintaining a peer group of high performers, aside from the self improving
psycho-social benefits, this adage tells us, others will view us favorable or unfavorably
based on this one known factor.

"You only have one chance to make a good first impression." While this tidbit is not so
forthcoming as the previous, on can readily infer from it that a first impression can have a
powerful and lasting impact. So, if the first thing you or your company does for a new client
is tremendous, and exhibits overwhelming dedication, service, and talent -- all subsequent
actions will be viewed within this hlao. Delays, issues with quality or workmanship, and
even incompetence can be overlooked. Citing prior successes as a benchmark, singularly
negative events and even strings of events can be completely sidestepped having delivered
well initially.

Conclusion
Just as with any powerful tool such as a gun, knife, hammer, axe, whether the tool is good
or bad, useful or damaging, all depends on your skill with that tool and whether its in your
hand or that of an aggressor. Familiarity with such tools does not guarantee that your
proficiency will not cause harm to another.  On the other hand, a lack of familiarity with
these concepts will result in your more readily succumbing to their effects.

Stereotypes
 
Explanations > Theories > Stereotypes
Description | Example | So What? | See also | References 
 
Description
Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people whereby we attribute a defined
set of characteristics to this group. These classifications can be positive or negative, such
as when various nationalities are stereotyped as friendly or unfriendly.

It is easier to create stereotypes when there is a clearly visible and consistent attribute
that can easily be recognized. This is why people of color, police and women are so easily
stereotyped.

People from stereotyped groups can find this very disturbing as they experience an
apprehension (stereotype threat) of being treated unfairly.

We change our stereotypes infrequently. Even in the face of disconfirming evidence, we

often cling to our obviously-wrong beliefs. When we do change the stereotypes, we do so
in one of three ways:

 Bookkeeping model: As we learn new contradictory information, we incrementally

adjust the stereotype to adapt to the new information. We usually need quite a lot
of repeated information for each incremental change. Individual evidence is taken
as the exception that proves the rule.
 Conversion model: We throw away the old stereotype and start again. This is often
used when there is significant disconfirming evidence.
 Subtyping model: We create a new stereotype that is a sub-classification of the
existing stereotype, particularly when we can draw a boundary around the sub-
class. Thus if we have a stereotype for Americans, a visit to New York may result in
us having a ‘New Yorkers are different’ sub-type.

We often store stereotypes in two parts. First there is the generalized descriptions and
attributes. To this we may add exemplars to prove the case, such as 'the policeman next
door'. We may also store them hierarchically, such as 'black people', 'Africans',
'Ugandans', 'Ugandan military', etc., with each lower order inheriting the characteristics of
the higher order, with additional characteristics added.

Stereotyping can go around in circles. Men stereotype women and women stereotype
men. In certain societies this is intensified as the stereotyping of women pushes them
together more and they create men as more of an out-group. The same thing happens
with different racial groups, such as 'white/black' (an artificial system of opposites, which
in origin seems to be more like 'European/non-European').

Stereotyping can be subconscious, where it subtly biases our decisions and actions, even
in people who consciously do not want to be biased.

Stereotyping often happens not so much because of aggressive or unkind thoughts. It is

more often a simplification to speed conversation on what is not considered to be an
important topic.

Example
Stereotyping goes way beyond race and gender. Consider conversations you have had
about people from the next town, another department in your company, supporters of
other football teams, and so on.  

So what?
Using it

Find how others stereotype you (if possible, getting them to stereotype you positively).
They will have a blind spot to non-stereotyped behaviors, so you can do these and they
will often ignore it. Thus if you are stereotyped as a ‘kind old man’, you can do moderately
unkind things which may be ignored.

Defending

To change a person’s view of your stereotype, be consistently different from it. Beware of
your own stereotyping blinding you to the true nature of other individuals.

Stereotyping can be reduced by bringing people together. When they discover the other
people are not as the stereotype, the immediate evidence creates dissonance that leads to
improved thoughts about the other group.

Geographical Indication
Geographical Indication (GI) signifies to the name or sign, used in reference to the products
which are corresponding to the particular geographical area or somewhat related to the origin
like town, region or nation. Thus GI grants the rights to its holder which acts as the certification
mark and shows that the specified product consists of the some qualities and is enjoying good
reputation due to its origin from the specified geographical location. The Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement has defined the 'geographical indications
rights' as the exclusionary rights for the indicator which identify the goods originated within the
member nations territories, or area or region of that territory, where the reputation or other
attributes of the goods is essentially related to the geographic origin of the place. Geographical
indications are the part of the intellectual property law therefore like any other law the regulation
and govern conditions of GI also varies from one country to another as high differences have
been found out in the use of generic terms across the world. Such case is prominent for food and
beverage which more commonly use the geographic terms. Geographical Indications are aimed
towards identifying the source of the product and is considered as the valuable business tool.

The global trade has made it crucial of harmonizing the various approaches and methods which
the governments use for registering the GIs in their respective territories. The first initiative was
taken in the year 1883 as the Paris Convention on trademarks which was followed by the more
elaborative provisions of the Lisbon Agreement in the year 1958 for the Protection of
Appellations of Origin and their Registration. In the year 1994 during the conclusion of the
negotiations on the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
all WTO members were decided to lay down certain standards for the GIs protection in their
respective countries. The Article 22 of the TRIPS Agreement emphasis on the obligations of the
government for providing legal opportunities within their territories for safeguarding the GI use
and curbing its misappropriate use.

Geographical Indication Act in India

In India the geographical indications regime is regulated by the Geographical Indications of
Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and the Geographical Indication of Goods
(Regulation and Protection) Rules, 2002. However registering of the GI is not compulsory in the
India as the owner of the unregistered GI can also enforce the actions with the help of passing off
against the infringer but it is recommendable to register the GI as the registration certificate acts
as the prima facie evidence in the court at the time of arising of any dispute and no additional
evidence is required to proof the validity. Examples of some of the popular geographical
indicators are- Basmati Rice, Kanjeepuram Sarees, Darjiling Tea. In the Indian act, geographical
indication is used for identifying the goods from a particular geographical location and its origin.
It encircles the agriculture goods, natural goods and is extended up to the manufacture goods
also. In order to register the geographical indication, the goods should possess the unique
characteristic, reputation with other qualities attributed to its geographical origin, for e.g,
climate, quality of soil, processing methods etc. Normally the geographical indicators signify to
the rights of community or a group therefore, an individual cannot register geographical
indication on his/her name. The Indian Geographical Indication Act has established the
Geographical Indication Registry, the statutory body, for completing the geographical indication
registration. The body prepares the Register of Geographical Indications which is prepared in
two parts- Part A and Part B. While Part A consists of the important attributes of the goods along
with the name of the registered owner whereas Part B details down the various rules which are
related to the geographical indicator authorized users registration.

To register the geographical indication, any organization or association of people or the statutory
authority can apply for the registration. They need to file the application which should consists of
the statement that how the geographical indications are related to the quality and with other
characteristic features which are the result of the geographical environment, encompasses of the
natural qualities and human factors, unique methods of production, processing and preparation,
which occurs within the said geographical area. It is required that the class of goods which have
been chosen should be covered under the registration. The applicant is needed to give the
geographical map of the area in which the goods have been produced along with the descriptory
methods of the geographical indicators appearance of the goods. The applicant can file the single
application for varied classes of goods but separate fees is required to be paid for each class of
goods. However for the registration of foreign indications, the submitted application should
detail down the address of the services which are situated in the India. The submitted application
may either be accepted fully or conditionally. If the application has been rejected or has been
accepted partially then the registrar is required to record in writing the reasons of rejection or
conditionally acceptance. After the application acceptance it will be publicized in the
Geographical Indication Journal and within the 3 months of its publication, any person who
oppose against the application and can request for the opposition proceedings. The registrar will
sent the copy of the opposition to the applicant who in turns is required to counter the statement
within 2 months of the receipt of the opposition copy. But if the applicant fails to comply with
the specified time duration then the application would have been considered rejected. After the
furnishing of the evidence by the applicant, the registrar will provide a chance to both parties for
the oral hearing and after that the matter will be settled down through the quasi-judicial manner.
In case of the foreign entities who are interested in lodging the opposition, are needed to submit
the security for costs.

The initial registration of the geographical indication holds its validness for 10 years. The Indian
act has given gracing period of 2 years for restoring back the registration of those geographical
indications which have been canceled due to the failure of paying the renewal fees. At the time
of the geographical indications infringement there are two types of remedies which have been
clearly specified in the act- Civil remedies which cover the injunction damages, which in turns
include the delivery of the infringed goods for the destructive purpose and forfeiting of the goods
which bear upon the fake representation of the original geographical indication. However the
criminal remedies may include of the punishment to the offender minimum to 6 months which
can extended maximum to 3 years with the minimum Rs.50,000 fine and maximum to
Rs.2,00,000. If the same offense is repeated in the future again then the minimum sentence
becomes of 1 year with minimum Rs.2,00,000 fine.