Bias in the Hiring Process, Part 5

When a Halo is a Bad Thing

We all know that it is not good to be biased, especially when it comes to things like race, gender and religion.  But beyond the conscious biases, there are a host of unconscious biases that influence our thoughts and affect our behavior.  Everyone has them because they serve as mental shortcuts to help us make decisions.  But, what they also often do is cloud our judgment.  These hidden biases make it harder to discern fact from fiction and truth from tales.  We misjudge based on assumptions, often ignoring anything that doesn’t fit with the perception.  We are led astray and we jump to conclusions.  This happens a lot.  And, what leads us astray can vary. 

One common factor that influences how we judge people is if they share our same likes, passions or values.  This type of unconscious cognitive bias is when a person’s perception of someone is positively influenced by his or her opinions of that person’s other traits; things that might not even have any bearing on what is being judged.  Dubbed the ‘halo effect’ by psychologist Edward Thorndike, it describes how we tend to allow a certain quality of a person – often one we share or admire – to erase our ability to perceive their less attractive traits or flaws.  So the picture we get is slanted and the story we hear is not the whole story.

Thorndike was the first to prove the existence of the halo effect scientifically and thus named it.  In 1920, he published a journal article titled “A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings.”  The article documented a study he performed with the military.  He asked commanding officers in the U.S. Army to rate their soldiers in regard to physical, intellectual, personal, and leadership qualities. Thorndike found that there was a high correlation within the commanders’ ratings of any given soldier.  If, for example, the soldier was rated highly in terms of leadership potential, then the commanding officer was likely to carry over that favorable evaluation to all of that soldier’s other qualities.  The same high level of correlation happened if a soldier was rated deficient in some respect.  Then all of that soldier’s qualities were also deficient.  Ratings reflected a marked tendency to think of a person in general as all good or all inferior.   Thorndike also saw the halo effect in workplace evaluations of industrial workers by their supervisors.  And, this happens in all areas of our lives, not just at work.  But, at work, this kind of ‘blind spot’ can be problematic, especially when hiring.

Hiring and Halo

During the hiring process, all candidates start on an even footing (or at least they should).  Information gathered about each candidate then starts to draw a picture of who the person is and what skills, experience and traits they bring to the job.   The goal is to hire someone who can not only do the job well but also work well with coworkers.  That is often referred to as “fit.”  The problem is that looking for candidates who “fit” often means we lean toward someone who connects in a “special way”.  This often happens with a shared hobby, life experience, value or passion.  And that commonality, of course, does not tell the whole story about the person.  It is just one aspect of the person and may obscure seeing other serious character flaws, weaknesses or professional shortcomings.  A candidate who is most ‘liked’ is not necessarily the one who is the best fit for the job. 

However, thanks to the Halo Effect, once a good first impression or bond is formed over mutual traits or even hobbies, we are likely to view other aspects of that person’s personality in a positive light.  It doesn’t matter if it is deserved it or not!  For the person who did the hiring, the person with the halo effect can do no wrong.  That person’s decisions are the right ones.  What that person says is always true.  At least, that’s how the hiring manager sees it.  Every company has seen the Halo Effect play out after a new hire.

What’s Wrong with a Halo? 

So what is wrong with the Halo Effect?  What’s wrong with a manager who loves to hunt to have a tendency to hire others who also love to hunt?  In fact, he might even be identifying candidates for openings from people he met while on a hunting trip.  What is wrong with wanting to hire someone with whom the manager shares a common interest, hobby, sport, or value?  Perhaps the supervisor is hiring customer service representatives from the people she meets at her Yoga class?  Why is that a problem?  Or what if the HR manager favors a candidate who, it turns out, also happens to be a Girl Scout Troop Leader like herself?  Who does this harm, if the person can do the job?

That’s the problem.  IF.  Can the person do the job?  Is the person the most qualified candidate for the job?  Does the person have the right temperament, skills, education, training and experience to handle the job?  Unfortunately, once the Halo Effect kicks in, it will be hard for that hiring manager to be able to determine that objectively.  The Halo Effect washes the candidate with such a positive glow that it is hard to really know if the hiring decision is an impartial one.  And that’s bad for any company, whether it is a mid-level manager, CEO, Owner, or Chairman of the Board doing the hiring.  The Halo Effect, in effect, creates a blind spot.  Once hired, the company will have to deal with the fallout if the person was a bad hire.  For a C-Suite exec, the repercussions of a bad hire can be extremely painful and costly. 

The Persistence of the Halo Effect

The influence on the evaluation of a person based on the perception of a single trait or quality is a phenomenon that has been widely investigated in social psychology.  After Thorndike’s study, the Halo Effect has been studied and validated repeatedly for over 100 years. 

Other studies have shown that the Halo Effect is strong in the academic and business communities as well as in friendship and dating situations. This observation holds true even among those who are aware of the Halo Effect. A classic 1977 study by Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson showed that students’ evaluations of an instructor affected their evaluations of his individual attributes.  In the experiment, the instructor spoke with a heavy European accent. He acted friendly and approachable to one group of subjects while behaving in a cold and impersonal manner toward the students in the other group. The students in the first group rated the lecturer’s accent and mannerisms as interesting and appealing, while the students in the second group saw them as irritating.  The professor’s teaching was viewed favorably because he was friendly and approachable, even though that had nothing to do with his accent and ability to deliver information in a way that was understandable. 

A follow-up study carried out in 1981 by Wilson reported that even when students were told in advance about the Halo Effect, they were still unable to escape it. Despite attempts to eliminate the Halo Effect, the results indicated that subjects in all conditions were very susceptible to it.  So knowing about this bias did not stop people from being vulnerable to it.

Once the Halo Effect is in place, it is very hard to dislodge it.  That is why success breeds success.  Case in point.  In 1969, Jerzy Kosinsky’s novel Steps won the American National Book Award for fiction. Eight years later, someone retyped the entire book and sent the manuscript with no title and under a false name to fourteen major publishers and thirteen literary agents in the U.S., including the firm that had originally published it.  Of the twenty-seven people to whom it was submitted, not one recognized that it had already been published. Moreover, all twenty-seven rejected it. All it lacked was Jerzy Kosinsky’s name to create the Halo Effect.  Without the name, it was just an indifferent book by a no-name writer.

Overcoming the Halo Effect

So what are hiring managers to do if they can’t avoid the Halo Effect even when they know about it?  All is not lost.  There are ways to minimize or cancel the Halo Effect using various cognitive de-biasing techniques.   

1. Slow down the reasoning process.  Aware of the Halo Effect, a person can mitigate the effect of the bias by trying to create two possible impressions of a person when first meeting them.  One can be positive and one negative.  Then, as more information is gained about the person, the interviewer can choose which original impression was closest to how the person is seen by the end of the interview. 
2. Adopt a competency-based approach to hiring, developing and retaining employees.  Competencies measure the skills, knowledge, and behaviors of employees. Competency-based tools provide an evidence-backed, data-driven approach to assess workers’ skills and performance.  A skills assessment will measure how well potential employees are able to perform the skills that are needed in their jobs. Which job candidates have the skills needed? What skills and competencies are needed to succeed at the job? 
3. Stick to Standards.  Establish standards, applied across the board, for resume screening, interview questions, and background screening choices.
4. Use AI software to do resume screening.  Blind resume screening tools help to avoid any chance of Halo Effect discrimination based on what college the person attended, where the person has worked in the past, or what hobbies the person has.
5. Take Notes.  Rely on data from detailed interview notes and verified background check information rather than gut feelings, snap judgments and hunches.
6. Have a Hiring Team.  Involve multiple people throughout the hiring process. This should include multiple interviewers as well as a possible third party who is not going to be pressured to agree with the boss.
7. Hire for Diversity.  Set diversity goals and hold your organization accountable for meeting those goals.

Next week, we’ll dive into Horn Effect Bias which is related to the Halo Effect.  So don’t miss it. 

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.

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