Halo Effect and Devil Effect in the Everyday World

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Halo Effect and Devil Effect in the Everyday World As lectured in class, the halo effect is defined as a good first impression which affects future interactions. Conversely, the devil effect is a bad first impression, which affects future interactions. Both of these effects are demonstrated on practically a regular basis in our society. Therefore, I will use examples from the film “Legally Blond”, starring long ago actress, Reese Witherspoon, as well as personal experiences and situations that occur in the pop culture to explain how both effects are exhibited on a daily basis. A more in depth, insight of what the devil effect is, would be one of a plethora of examples within the film, “Legally Blond”, which is at the very beginning of the film. Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon, also the main character in the film, was with her best friends at a women’s clothing store shopping for a dress for her big date with her boyfriend, Warner. As she was looking for the perfect dress, the sales women were observing Elle and noticed she was a Blond, which led to the sales women stating, “There's nothing I love more than a dumb blonde with daddy's plastic”. The woman was insinuating that since she was a blonde, and she spoke, as well as acted like a stereotypical blonde, that she was dumb and oblivious to whatever anyone told her. That being so, the women tried to belittle Elle by trying to sell her generic dress and tried to present it to her as if the dress was made of high end material, by a high end fashion designer. Elle responded with a witty question and alleviated the sales woman’s intent of fooling her into purchasing the dress. This was a blatant example of stereotypes being a major part of people’s first impression based off of appearance, also known as the devil effect, which in this scenario was Elle being a young, white, blonde woman. As

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