Halo and Devil Affect

Halo and Devil Effect Paper We live day to day knowing we live in a superficial society, from the way we look and dress and up to the way we present ourselves; we are always being judged in some form or fashion. Whether this is how you are treated by your social circle or in your employment seeking experience, its pretty sad that physical appearance can have and effect on so many things including the hiring process.

In this essay I will be discussing two key concepts that are directly related to workplace discrimination based off of a persons physical appearance and characteristics. In the process of this I will view the film “The Devil Wears Prada” and discuss two scenes that illustrate my findings. The halo effect is the overall tendency to judge someone and favor him or her based on the bias of his or her positive characteristics or physical appearance without knowing the overall full package.

The opposite affect of this concept is called the devil effect which is the tendency to judge someone who could potentially have all of the qualifications for a position but wont be hired based off of his or her negative characteristics or physical appearance. While reading the article “Why looks are the last bastion of discrimination” this article definitely highlights on the halo and devil effect and discussed how weight came into play when determined if the interviewee should be hired or not.

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The job title was a school bus driver and it was determined without any concrete evidence that she could not evacuate a school bus in the event of an emergency situation, I find this completely bias on the companies behalf. Personally being a passenger on a school bus for many years during grade school, many of the school bus drivers where obese and not in the best of shape but, when any emergency situation arose mainly on and emergency school bus drills, they where able to perform the task of evacuating the bus in a safe and timely manner.

This article also highlights other aspects of a study and how looks can play a major role in how people perceive a good looking or attractive person being viewed as intelligent, good and likable. Documented in this study obese individuals were rated to have a disadvantage in work, school and more. Among other findings in years of research, people who where unattractive where less likely to be hired and promoted and had lower salaries, even in fields where looks were not even of relevance. Another aspect of physical ttractiveness bias in hiring comes from the article “beauty is beastly”. There has been evidence suggesting that jobs traditionally filled my men, the opposite of the traditional bias happens to female applicants, attractive females are evaluated less favorably than unattractive females. This suggests that a more rugged female possibly comes across as being manlier or tomboyish making her easy to relate to traditional male positions such as a construction worker, firefighter, mechanic etc.

I chose to watch the film “The devil wears prada” there was an obvious halo affect that was present; the job title was a personal assistant at Runway which is a very popular fashion magazine. When the applicant went into the office for her interview she was basically judged based on her since of fashion on weather she had the abilities to do that particular job even though she was college educated and had the qualifications to perform this job.

I think the only reason why she was called back in and hired was because she asserted herself after the interview stating that she was not skinny, glamorous ect, but she was smart and a fast learner which are the important things. We know when going to an interview that we should dress in casual or business attire but you shouldn’t have to be dressed like a supermodel in order to get any job unless you are actually the model.

The devil effect was depicted in this film when Andrea was out with a new found friend one night and he learned that she was working as Miranda Priestley’s assistant, he comment that she would never survive Miranda because she seems nice and smart and that she couldn’t do that job. I think many people think that’s just because someone comes off as being nice or relaxed cant handle aggressive or mean people but this definitely isn’t always true but with her being smart and educated can sometimes deem you over qualified for positions and not work in your favor but in this situation it was not the case.

My personal connection to the halo effect was while in the military, being in the military you learn from basic training that looking sharp in your uniform can show how much pride you have in the service. There are also many awards that you can obtain depending on how sharp your uniform looks, how well you perform your job duties and on up to having outstanding military bearing. In order to win awards you have to compete with a number of your peers and who ever has the most recognition win.

I had been nominated for several awards while in the military and most of the time I won because they always told me I was always sharp with my uniform pressed and creased and always respectful. The halo and devil effect is constantly seen in our society, this will be an on going issue that will probably never change because we live with a judgmental state of mind that constantly makes snap judgments on individuals, so the next time you are in a situation remember try not to judge someone based on there positive or negative characteristics try getting to know them first.

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