Halo effect
Etymology
Named and measured by psychologist Edward Thorndike in a 1920 paper, "A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings," after he found officers rating soldiers let one good trait color all the others. The word borrows the halo of religious painting — the ring of light around a saint — as a metaphor for a glow that makes everything nearby look better.
noun · /HAY-loh ih-FEKT/
The tendency to let one positive impression of a person or thing spill over into unrelated judgments about them.
What it names
It explains why we assume good-looking people are also kind or smart, and why a sleek product feels more trustworthy than its specs justify.
Example
The founder’s Stanford degree created a halo effect that carried the pitch long past the point where the numbers stopped adding up.
Related idea
The horn effect is its dark twin — one bad trait dragging down every other judgment; the halo effect is the flattering direction of the same distortion.