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 scenario described in the question pertains to a cognitive bias in psychology known as the Halo Effect. This effect occurs when an individual's overall impression or reputation, such as being famous due to presence in TV shows or advertisements, influences how others perceive their other attributes or behaviors. 

• In this case, contestants who were already famous received higher scores not due to their intrinsic qualities relevant to the pageant but because their fame positively skewed the judges' assessments.
• The Halo Effect involves a cognitive bias where one trait, known to a person, can have a disproportionate influence on the perception of that person’s other unrelated attributes.

Therefore, the correct option is the Halo effect, as it describes the tendency of evaluators to assume positive characteristics of individuals based on one known positive attribute.

Answer 2

The Halo effect is a cognitive bias where an observer’s overall impression of a person (often based on one positive trait or aspect, such as fame) influences their ratings or judgments of that person’s other traits or abilities.

In this case, the contestants’ fame from T.V. appearances led the raters to give them higher scores, regardless of their actual performance in the pageant. This happens because the positive impression of the contestant's fame spills over and biases the raters' judgment, causing them to view the contestants more favorably in other areas as well.