A short YouTube segment (Johnny Campbell, April 23, 2024) featuring Holly Fawcett describing the halo and horns effects in hiring. She explains how affinity can cause positive or negative distortion when reviewing CVs—e.g., dismissing an unexplained three-year gap if you like the person (halo) or overemphasizing it if you don't (horns). She highlights referrals as a common vector for halo effects and recommends mitigations: evaluate candidates against the same criteria, blind CVs by removing names and sources, and assess whether referred candidates stand on their own merit.
Chapters
The halo effect and affinity bias go hand in hand. The halo effect is really interesting because we could be completely tricked by affinity. We have something in common. I think we'll get along. And therefore we put this little halo around this person. Oh, I think they're fantastic. So we view their CV or their resume in this really positive light and we even dismiss negative information. Or we downplay that negative information as being insignificant or unimportant. Like the fact that they have an unexplained three year gap in their CV and they're not willing to discuss it. That's a bit of a negative. But look, we got along famously. I really like this person. Conversely, the horns effect is where we have no affinity to that person and so we see their CV in a completely negative light and we downplay or dismiss positive attributes to their CV or to their resume rather than looking at the great things that they've achieved. And. And that unexplained three year gap in their cv, well, that's just totally unacceptable. So how does the halo and horns effect come into hiring? It is really prevalent in referrals. Your company might have an employee referral incentive. You yourself may have referred a friend or family member for a job at your company. You may have actually been a referral yourself into your current company. And companies tend to hire people who get a warm introduction into the recruiting process than a candidate who applies in cold. Especially if the person who refers the candidate in is very senior or they're a very high performer or is well liked in the company, that candidate will usually benefit from the halo effect. The only way to counteract this in your hiring process is to evaluate all candidates against the same set of criteria and evaluate their responses blind so that you're making as fair a judgment on their interview as possible. And long before the interview, when reviewing CVs or a shortlist, take the names and candidate source off the cv, look at the information in front of you and match that to your hiring criteria. If a referred candidate really is the best candidate, they'll shine through on their own merit, not because of some halo you've put around them.
