halo effect original cite

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What is the original citation for the "halo effect"?

-- debra basil (debra.basil@uleth.ca), November 15, 2001

Answers

I don't know if they are the first citations, but here are two references from 1929 that mention the halo effect, and there are no prior ones in the PsycInfo data base back to 1887. (Thanks to Norm Endler of York University for tracking these down for me.)

DOCUMENT TYPE: Journal-Article TITLE: The college professor as the student sees him. AUTHOR: Remmers,-H-H SOURCE: Bulletin-of-Purdue-University:-Studies-in-Higher-Education,-XI. 1929; 29 No. 6: 63 JOURNAL NAME: Bulletin-of-Purdue-University:-Studies-in-Higher-Education,-XI PUBLICATION YEAR: 1929 LANGUAGE: English ABSTRACT: The use at Purdue University of the Purdue Rating Scale for Instructors is described in detail. More than 200 instructors were rated in each of ten traits of teaching personality by the students in their classes. The results in 115 of these cases are presented. The reliability of the average scale score is high if from 75 to 100 students' judgments are averaged. Typical results reported are: the maturity of the students has a negligible effect on average ratings; the halo effect is unimportant; and students agree very closely on the relative values of the ten teaching personality traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved)(unassigned) KEY PHRASE: TEACHER ATTITUDES TO BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS, STUDENT RATING; STUDENT ABILITY INDEX, RATING OF COLLEGE TEACHING, OF PROFESSORS; PROFESSOR, STUDENT RATING; COLLEGE ACHIEVEMENT, TEACHING, RATING, STUDENT MAJOR DESCRIPTORS: *No-terms-assigned

DOCUMENT TYPE: Journal-Article TITLE: What's wrong with service (efficiency) ratings? CORPORATE AUTHOR: Bureau of Public Personnel administration Staff SOURCE: Public-Personnel-Studies. 1929; 7: 18-28 JOURNAL NAME: Public-Personnel-Studies PUBLICATION YEAR: 1929 LANGUAGE: English ABSTRACT: Analysis of data presented as to the validity and reliability of ratings of policemen and police women under varying conditions of control of ratings leads to the conclusion that the unreliability usually found is due to (1) the inability of the rating officer to hold in his mind at one time all of the pertinent facts in his possession which might affect the ratings; (2) the inability of the rating officer to evaluate and weigh, without some artificial scheme or aid, the facts in his possession which he can remember at one time; (3) "halo" effect, due to emotional factors, intellectual inadequacy on the part of the rater, and a reluctance on the part of most rating officers to make ratings at all. Properly chosen rating officers, provided with adequate forms and instructions, are able to give fairly reliable facts about the performance of employees, from which ratings can be made sufficiently reliable to be serviceable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all ri! ghts reserved)(unassigned) KEY PHRASE: SERVICE RATINGS, UNRELIABILITY OF; RELIABILITY BY CUMULATIVE TESTS, OF EFFICIENCY RATINGS; RATING OF AMERICAN NOVELISTS, SERVICE, UNRELIABILITY OF; INDUSTRIAL AND PERSONNEL PROBLEMS MAJOR DESCRIPTORS: *No-terms-assigned

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), November 15, 2001.


I am also told (by Ward Struthers of York U.) of an even earlier reference:

Thorndike, E. A. (1920). Constant error in psychological ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, 4, 25-29.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), November 16, 2001.


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