El efecto halo se refiere a un sesgo cognitivo por el cual la percepción de un rasgo particular es influida por la percepción de rasgos anteriores en una secuencia de interpretaciones. Por tanto, si nos gusta una persona tendemos a calificarle con características favorables a pesar de que no disponemos de mucha información sobre esa persona. Este efecto se da en muchos ámbitos de la vida cotidiana, incluyendo en las aulas y en procesos judiciales. El nombre de efecto halo fue acuñado por Edward L. Thorndike; investigadores posteriores han estudiado este efecto y su relación, en especial, con el atractivo físico dada su relevancia en el sistema educativo y en procesos judiciales.

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The halo effect is a cognitive bias in which an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influences the observer's feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties. It was named by psychologist Edward Thorndike in reference to a person being perceived as having a halo. Subsequent researchers have studied it in relation to attractiveness and its bearing on the judicial and educational systems. The halo effect is a specific type of confirmation bias, wherein positive feelings in one area cause ambiguous or neutral traits to be viewed positively. Edward Thorndike originally coined the term referring only to people; however, its use has been greatly expanded especially in the area of brand marketing. The term "halo" is used in analogy with the religious concept: a glowing circle crowning the heads of saints in countless medieval and Renaissance paintings, bathing the saint's face in heavenly light. The observer may be subject to overestimating the worth of the observed by the presence of a quality that adds light on the whole like a halo. In other words, observers tend to bend their judgement according to one patent characteristic of the person (the "halo"), generalizing towards a judgement of that person's character (e.g., in the literal hagiologic case, "entirely good and worthy"). The halo effect works in both positive and negative directions (the horns effect): If the observer likes one aspect of something, they will have a positive predisposition toward everything about it. If the observer dislikes one aspect of something, they will have a negative predisposition toward everything about it.

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