The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [122]
Our brains like to utilize reputational bias because it keeps the status quo intact. Once people establish labels, those labels become cues for how they “should” treat each other. That treatment then perpetuates the labels, turning reputation into perceived reality. Reputational bias keeps the populars popular and the outcasts outcast. As reputational bias expert Shelley Hymel wrote, “Popular children acquire a ‘positive halo’ and unpopular children acquire a ‘negative halo,’ which color how their behavior is perceived, evaluated, and responded to by others.”
The halo effect is one of the oldest known phenomena in modern social psychology. It’s also highly relevant to social labels in school. The halo effect is the tendency to let one characteristic, even an irrelevant one, influence the total judgment of someone or something. This accounts for our inclination to judge attractive people as more talented, intelligent, and friendly than they might actually be.4 It is also a reason that many people assume an item is durable, cool, and of good quality simply because it carries a prestigious designer label. It explains why the iPod revitalized Apple’s other products. How guys can use puppies as successful chick magnets. And why we think someone is better-looking once he or she acquires celebrity status.
The halo effect also explains in part why the “cool” crowd stays cool. Because these students were crowned with high status, the halo effect extends that alleged superiority to other traits. The clothes they wear, the ways they act, the trends they follow, the words they favor, even the color of their hair can be cool simply because of the association with high status. This distinction between the populars and the cafeteria fringe doesn’t indicate that the latter are in any way inferior. They simply might not happen to be the beneficiaries of the halo effect, which creates an arbitrary, illusory, and ultimately meaningless aura of coolness.
An interesting aspect of the halo effect is that it has been proven that we don’t realize when it’s kicking in. So when Trey’s classmates assume that he is clumsy, stupid, and one-dimensional merely because he is labeled a musclehead, they likely don’t realize that their minds have taken a huge, improbable leap. They are unaware of the series of mental cop-outs they have taken to brand Trey with a label and let the resulting reputation color their views about his personality, character, and identity. And they have no idea that, by refusing to peel back that label—and refusing to mix up their cafeteria seating—they might be missing out on their next best friend.
WHITNEY, NEW YORK | THE POPULAR BITCH
Whitney decided to cast aside the preps’ aversion to Dirk, the leader of the punks. She had always admired him; her challenge would be a good chance to get to know him better. In the small advertising seminar they took together, they gradually grew closer. They IMed outside of school. Eventually, rather than the awkward eye contact they used to make in the hallways, they purposely bumped one another or gave playful shoves, teasing, “Ew!” If Whitney weren’t exclusive with Luke, she would have wanted to hook up with Dirk.
But as Whitney got to know the punks, chiefly through Dirk and his best friend, she was surprised to discover that they shared some of the preps’ characteristics. Many of the punks were promiscuous, or spent their spare time getting high. The girls shunned Whitney when she chatted with Dirk. The guys badmouthed other students. Maybe all cliques are the same, Whitney thought. They all have their own drama, their own backstabbing, their own conformities. How they treat people outside the group