Cognitive misunderstanding caused by Halo Effect

Source: Internet
Author: User

Last time I talked about the influence in social engineering
This topic mentions the psychological "halo effect ". I want to discuss this topic in depth today.

What is "Halo Effect"

Some students are forgetful, and some of them have not read the previous post.
Let me explain the halo effect again.
"Halo Effect" is also called "Halo Effect" or "halo effect", which refers toSignificant
The perception of local features is blindly expanded to the overall view of this person. Wikipedia explains "here
".
The above definition is for "people" and may be calledNarrow Sense
Halo Effect. If we replace "someone" in the above definition with "something", this effect still exists and is calledBroadly speaking
Halo Effect.
In addition, many people mistakenly think that the "significant feature" in the halo effect refersAdvantages
. In fact, some significantDisadvantages
It will also cause halo effect. Later, I will refer to the halo effect caused by advantages as"Front
Halo Effect.Negative
Halo Effect ".

Negative impact Example

To impress everyone first, let's give a few examples.
◇ Idol worship
The so-called "idol worship" is not uncommon between Ancient and Modern Chinese and foreign countries. Let's just give a few examples: Today's star chaser (which seems to be available in all countries), for example, the Red Guards worship XXX during the Cultural Revolution, for example, the people in Nazi Germany worship Hitler ,...... those who worship idols are all influenced by the "Halo Effect" and lead to such fanatic behavior.

◇ Technical battle
There are many examples of Halo effects in the IT field (especially the halo effect in the broad sense). Let's talk about this.
 
I am the first to push the "programming language war" (so I am very careful when writing programming language posts, for fear of drowning ). This kind of verbal war is common in BBS, and is often widely used
Long. Most of the enthusiastic fighters involved belong to fans in a programming language. When he/she starts to learn this programming language, he/she has a significant feature related to the language (such as syntax, library, and application)
Then, the halo effect begins to ferment in the mind, causing the fans to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of the language; then, fans, once heard of any criticism of the language's shortcomings
And then the war of words went viral ......
In fact, the IT industry is not limited to programming languages. For example, in the operating system field
Vs Linux vs Mac "," Emacs vs VI "in the editor field, and" KDE vs "in the POSIX desktop environment
GNOME and RIA developed "flex
Silverlight ",... the above list, I can continue to list a lot (it seems that the battle of mouth water will appear in every IT field ). Although the fields of these war of speech are very different
Big, but the root cause of psychology is similar (will be discussed later ).

◇ Silver bullet Technology
What is "silver bullet"? When I first commented on "man-month myth", I mentioned it specifically. Please refer to "here
".
The IT industry (especially the software industry) is often filled with a variety of "Silver Bullet" and is known as a cure for all diseases. For example, the software industry once advocated the following silver bullet: "object-oriented, component technology, design model,
CMM, UML, agile development, rad, SOA ,......". Of course, many silver bullets are for commercial purposes and have nothing to do with the subject of this post. But the silver bullet is still available.
Many believe that this is very interesting. ThoseFooled
To a certain extent, the reason why the silver bullet effect is convinced can also be attributed to the halo effect.

◇ Some national prejudices
The previous examples are related to the positive halo effect. Let's look at a negative example. Before proceeding to this example, I would like to declare that I am not a Japanese user and do not agree with Japanese culture.
For example, many people in China are too one-sided in their views on the Japanese and fall into a misunderstanding of the negative halo effect. When talking about things related to Japan, these people immediately put their faces in disdain, and their opening words are a negative term. Don't scold the Japanese for being bloody. Why is it like this? Think twice.
 
Most Chinese people's knowledge of Japan (including ethnic and cultural aspects) begins with materials related to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (such as Anti-Japanese War movies, content in some primary school textbooks, etc ). Because of these resources
It is expected to deliberately strengthen the ugly side of the Japanese. after a long time of contact, it will inevitably lead to a negative halo effect, blindly expanding Japan's shortcomings in World War II to other aspects, in this way, all data related to Japan is devalued/denied.
Everything.

How does it work?

The previous examples show that the halo effect has a wide impact scope. Based on my own understanding, I will analyze why the role of this stuff is so strong. Statement in advance: I am not a professional in psychology. So let's take a look at the following analysis.
◇ Consistency principle
In the book influence (in previous posts)
I have talked about this book, and I suggest you have read it before.) I introduced the consistency principle. In layman's terms, there is a tendency in the subconscious to maintain consistency among various things (including views, views, and positions. Specifically, when you positively comment on an object (including people or things), you will reject negative comments from the subconscious; and vice versa.
For example, when you like your lover (or spouse), you will reject the disadvantages and shortcomings of the other party in your subconscious. This kind of rejection is carried out subconsciously (maybe "self"), and you are not even aware of yourself (that is, "self.

◇ Combined with the "first effect"
The so-called "first-mover effect" is generally the first impression or first-mover. When you perceive someone (something), the first impression will be profound. If the first impression is exactly a distinctive feature of the other party, the "first effect" and "Halo Effect" will be superimposed, and the effect will be more obvious.
For example, the so-called "love at first sight" usually combines the initial effect with the positive halo effect.

◇ Selective "oversight" and selective "amnesia"
 
When the halo effect of an object begins to appear, some people will see "selective oversight" or "selective amnesia ". What we call "oversight" here is to turn a blind eye to something and hear nothing. For example
The star chaser mentioned only observes the advantages of idols, but does not see the disadvantages of idols (that is, selective oversight). Even if an idol suffers a major scandal or scandal, many star chaser will also suffer selective amnesia, against these scandal
/Gossip, especially easy to forget.
The cause of selective "oversight" and selective "amnesia" may be caused by the "consistency principle", and the results of selective "oversight" and selective "amnesia, it also strengthens the consistency of cognition. The two form positive feedback and strengthen each other, increasing the "Halo" of cognition.

How to avoid its negative impact

Here, some people are wondering: What should we do to prevent the negative impact of the halo effect? The following are some of my methods (whether they work or not varies from person to person ).
◇ Avoid premature conclusion
When you contact an object for the first time, do not draw conclusions easily. It is easy to trigger the "consistency principle" in the subconscious to influence your objective judgment.
In addition, when you contact an object for the first time, the "First Cause effect" mentioned above may affect your judgment. This is also one of the reasons to avoid hasty conclusions.

◇ Learn about the advantages and disadvantages and draw conclusions again
I just mentioned that we should not draw conclusions too early. When will we be able to draw conclusions? My habit is: At least we need to collect information about the advantages and disadvantages, front and back of a certain item before we can draw conclusions. When you simply understand the advantages or disadvantages of an object, the conclusions you make are often biased and not objective enough.

◇ Consider the characteristics of the opposite
When you like something very much/are keen on something (maybe something or something), you may as well ask yourself, isn't there any defect in this stuff? If you dislike or dislike something, you can also deliberately ask yourself, isn't this stuff advantageous?
Through such reflection, you may find the original misunderstanding.


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