This concept has been developed in social psychology and refers to the finding that a global evaluation of a person sometimes influences people’s perception of that person’s other unrelated attributes. For example, a friendly person may be considered to have a nice physical appearance, whereas a cold person may be evaluated as less appealing (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Halo effects have also been applied in other domains of psychology. For example, a study on the ‘health halo’ found that consumers tend to choose drinks, side dishes and desserts with higher calorific content at fast‐food restaurants that claim to be healthy (e.g. Subway) compared to others (e.g. McDonald’s) (Chandon & Wansink, 2007).
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References
Chandon, P., & Wansink, B. (2007). The biasing health halos of fast-food restaurant health claims: Lower calorie estimates and higher side-dish consumption intentions. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(3), 301-314.
Nisbett, R., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). The Halo Effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 250-256.