Question

While judging a personality pageant, raters gave high scores to contestants who were already famous because of their presence in popular TV serials or advertisements and tended to give low scores to those who were not so popular. This phenomenon is called:

• A. Halo effect
• B. Recency effect
• C. Primacy effect
• D. Rosenthal effect

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Solution: The situation presented aligns with the psychological phenomenon termed the Halo Effect. This bias occurs when a person's general impression or public image, such as celebrity status from media appearances, impacts how their other characteristics are evaluated.

• In this context, contestants who were already renowned received elevated scores, not as a consequence of their inherent suitability for the pageant, but due to their fame influencing the judges' evaluations positively.
• The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias wherein a single known characteristic exerts an undue influence on the perception of an individual's other, unrelated attributes.

Consequently, the accurate choice is the Halo effect, which accurately portrays the inclination of assessors to ascribe positive traits to individuals based on a single recognized positive attribute.