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We’re all attracted to people all the time.
What is it that attracts us to others? And
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what do others find attractive about you?
These are some of the questions our team is
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going to try and answer in this series of
videos. With millions of people to choose
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from, finding that perfect someone shouldn’t
be that difficult. But the media, social pressures
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and human nature itself have turned it into
a mystery. We’re surrounded by manipulated
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images, celebrity and glossy perfection. We’re
given rules about dating through books, websites
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and the press. They all pressure us to conform
to an ideal of what is attractive. [music]
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But what’s the truth? It’s time for science
to tackle the subject. Through a series of
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experiments, our team are going to piece together
some of the clues to this enormously complex
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phenomenon and in these videos they will explore
the
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science of attraction.
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When we meet a person for the first time we
undoubtedly draw a conclusion about them.
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We make a judgement on what type of person
we think they are and possibly subconsciously,
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decide whether we like them or not.
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But is it possible that one aspect of their
personality, one trait or detail can affect
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how we perceive them? Would we judge a generally
good person as bad because of their views
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on religion, or a joke that's in bad taste
or how much money they have? And is the reverse
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true? How good is our judgement really?
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In this experiment two groups of lovely ladies
will see two very different sides of the same
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guy.
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>>I do like his personality.
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>>I think he's quite self-centred.
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As the team investigate how easily we can
deceive ourselves. But first here's Kat.
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The choice of a product we buy can be influenced
by the positive aspects of the celebrity representing
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it or we may stay in a relationship which
is wrong for us because of one good quality
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which blinds us to the negatives of our partner
or makes them seem more positive.
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This is known as the halo effect.
When one good quality spills its appeal onto
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other elements of a person's character we
are seeing the Halo Effect in action. We decided
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to find out what impact it has on personal
relationships and the way we perceive others.
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To test out the halo effect we've asked Mr
X also known as Dan to create two dating videos
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for us. Charlie who will be hosting the experiment
is going to explain to Dan exactly what we
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need.
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>>Hello Dan,
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>>Hello, how's it going?
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>>Now today your going to be our Mr X for
our halo effect dating video experiment. We're
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going to give you one script which we would
like you to read in two different ways, one
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quite happy and upbeat and the other quite
negative and downbeat. Does that sound alright?
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>>Yeah that's cool
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Just to point out, this experiment isn't about
confidence, its more about acceptance of the
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person through first impressions. Do we ignore
the bad points because of good ones?
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>>Hi my names Dan and...
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Right so now were going to show the two different
videos to two separate groups of very lovely
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ladies to find out exactly what they think
of Dan.
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Hi girls, I'm Charlie thank you everyone for
coming along today. Now we're going to split
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you into to two groups and ask you to watch
a dating video make sure you pay attention
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because there's going to be a test at the
end. Don't worry, not really, just you know
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go and have some fun.
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>>Bye
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[laughter] So group one are sent off to one
room to watch Dan's upbeat video. Whilst group
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two are sent off to another to watch Dan's
downbeat video and the girls have no idea
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that there is anything different about either
of their videos.
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Hi My names Dan and this is my stupid dating
video for this dating site where I hope I
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can meet someone.
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Hi [laughter] My names Dan and this is my
stupid dating video for this dating site where
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I hope I can meet someone. [laughter] I don't
know what to say. The reason I'm here is because
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I can't find my perfect woman in the real
world so there must be something wrong with
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me.
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The reason I'm here is because I can't find
my perfect woman in the real world so there
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must be something wrong with me. So I suppose
you want to know a bit about me, I look football,
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music...
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...Going out with friends. Best part about
me, my body no doubt. [laughter]
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What makes me laugh? I don't know what makes
me laugh, anything funny I guess. I'm looking
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for someone who understands me...
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...That gets me and isn't afraid of trying
things that I like
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who isn't afraid of trying things that I like.
I'm not into all these sex and the city girls
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or hair or handbags or shoes.
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I'm not into these sex and the city types,
with their hair and handbags [laughter] and
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shoes and that...
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I want my woman to stay at home whilst I go
out and go work and earn the money for her.
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>>Boo, no definitely not
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I go out and go work and earn the money for
her. My ideal date would be someone fun interesting,
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but cheap [laughter] because its not about
the money that I spend but about the time
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we spend together.
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Its not about the money that I spend but about
the time we spend together. So if you like
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me, call me.
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If you like me, call me. [laughter]
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>>Right let's see what Group one think about
Dan after seeing that video
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>>I do like his personality, I think he seems
like a really like honest guy and he's also
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quite like a man kind of guy. Like he's quite
manly. He's not all showy trying to be like,
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do you know what I mean.
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>>He seems like a wholesome boy though doesn't
he.
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>>He'd be a good boy to bring to your parents
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>>Trustworthy kind of guy, like you know,
solid.
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>>He said the best thing about him was his
body
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>>That was meant to be a joke
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>>I know but it wasn't funny
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>>I like the bit when he was like its not
about the money its not about the quality
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of day its about the quality of time.
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>>So what do you reckon girls yes or no? Is
he likeable?
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>>Likeable yeah
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>>Yes
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>>Likeable but not for me romantically
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>>I think he was quite self-centred like he
was about me me me
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>>I agree yeah
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>>But I guess with a dating video that's all
he has to go on that's all he can say that's
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what he's like that's what he's looking for
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>>Nowadays women are quite career focused
so it would be both of them going out to work
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where he's expecting him alone to like provide
for both of them. And he was also saying he
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doesn't like girls that are into like hair
and hand bags and I think a lot of ladies
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are.
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>>Yeah I agree, I don't think we'd get on.
He would have a fit with my healthy obsession
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with shoes.
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>>He seemed to have like a hard run to be
like you know, thinking this is my last chance
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to actually find someone.
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>>I don't like how he started it though saying
this is a stupid dating video, well yeah exactly,
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your not having much luck elsewhere.
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>>So do you think you would go on a date with
him or..?
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>>No
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>>No no no from me
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>>No way
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>>I would yeah I would give him a chance just
because there's no harm in the first date
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then you can really tell what they're like,
how the conversation goes. So thumbs up or
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thumbs down?
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>>Well those reactions were quite different.
So lets go over to Kat to see what its all
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about.
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Despite seeing videos of the same person saying
the same thing, the opinions were varied.
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One group mentioned specific things they didn't
like about Fan while the other group completely
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ignored them. But why?
These mixed opinions are partly due to the
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halo effect.
The videos were identical in every way apart
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from his tone and body language. He showed
much more enthusiasm in one video and seemed
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like he wanted to be doing it.
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Hi I'm Dan and this is my stupid dating video
for this dating site where I hope I can meet
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someone.
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While in the second video he was less outgoing
and had a more negative feel to the way he
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spoke.
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Hi my name's Dan and this is my stupid dating
video for this dating site where I hope I
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can meet someone.
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The enthusiasm and positive tone of the first
video created the halo effect his positive
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attitude clouded the girls judgement and made
them accept his comments in a more positive
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way.
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Hey girls, welcome back I hope that was interesting.
So its pretty clear that you both had different
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opinions about the video you have just seen.
Which is a little weird because both videos
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are of both the same guys saying exactly the
same thing.
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However, group one your Dan was upbeat and
enthusiastic and group two your Dan was unenthusiastic.
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We explained to the girls the concept of the
Halo Effect and what the experiment was about.
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>>It kind of makes sense now
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>>It makes you realise how important tone
is and how you deliver it
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>>We then played the girls each others videos,
the question is, will they change their opinion
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or will the halo effect still have a hold?
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>>It came across more about what he wants
to do and you'll do what he likes even though
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he's saying the same thing that came across
to me so much more.
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>>That is so much better
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>>So different
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>>You feel like you would be able to have
a proper conversation with him, where as before,
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although you probably could, it would be a
bit more difficult where as now, yeah actually
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I could probably chat to him for a while.
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>>If we had seen him be negative first time
around, we might not give him a chance to
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improve on that but because we saw him being
positive like it might give you the chance
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to think oh he's just having a bad day if
he's being negative so like he would have
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got passed the first hurdle to give off a
good impression.
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>>My initial opinion has changed but then
at the end of the video you're still like
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he did say those things.
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>>He can't take it back
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>>Yeah exactly
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So that was the Halo effect in action. When
we are given a positive characteristic that
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we like, in this case a nice smiley personality,
it can affect our perception in a way that
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increases the attraction of all other attributes
or blinds us to any negative ones.
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We ignore negative comments because they don't
fit with the positive quality we associate
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with that person.
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So the Halo affect can cloud our judgement,
even when we know about it.
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The next time you make a judgment about a
person, good or bad, ask yourself 'is the
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halo effect in action'. It could be the difference
between voting for the wrong person, staying
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in a relationship you should leave or rejecting
someone who would otherwise be a loyal friend.
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>>To find out more and test out our chat up
line generator go to scienceofattraction.co.uk
