SilasBarta comments on Open Thread: July 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Alicorn 09 July 2010 06:54AM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 20 July 2010 11:34:03PM 0 points [-]

Given that there's the halo effect (that you mention) plus the affect heuristic, it seems that if there's a bias, it goes the other way - people tend to think all positive attributes clump together.

If both effects exist, that would cast doubt on whether it counts as a bias at all, as the direction of the error is not consistently one way. (Right?)

Comment author: JoshuaZ 20 July 2010 11:38:14PM 0 points [-]

If both effects exist, that would cast doubt on whether it counts as a bias at all, as the direction of the error is not consistently one way. (Right?)

Will's remark suggests that the biases exist in different circumstances. If I'm following Will, then the halo effect occurs when people have already interacted with impressive individuals, whereas Will's reported effect occurs only when people are hearing about an impressive individual in a second-hand or third-hand way.