halo effect

n. Research on person perception demonstrates that we form initial impressions of others very quickly. Research has shown that once we form an initial positive impression of a person, we tend to have a bias in our subsequent perceptions of that individual such that we pay attention to behavior confirming our positive impressions, and we discount or ignore information that is inconsistent with our positive impression. This impression- confirmation bias is known as the halo effect. Researchers have also demonstrated a parallel bias for confirming initially negative impressions, which is sometimes referred to as the horns effect.

- MWP