The health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label
Sunday, April 10, 2011 - 12:30
in Psychology & Sociology
Jenny Wan-chen Lee, a graduate student in Cornell University's Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, has been fascinated with a phenomenon known as "the halo effect" for some time. Psychologists have long recognized that how we perceive a particular trait of a person can be influenced by how we perceive other traits of the same individual. In other words, the fact that a person has a positive attribute can radiate a "halo", resulting in the perception that other characteristics associated with that person are also positive. An example of this would be judging an attractive person as intelligent, just because he or she is good-looking.