Halo and Devil Effect Essays

Halo and Devil Effect Essays Halo and Devil Effect Paper Halo and Devil Effect Paper In our lives we can make many unconscious decisions based on cognitive perceptions. For example, when one thinks of the company Apple, they automatically make an association with the iPod/iPhone. When one thinks of an obese person, unfortunately, they automatically think of someone who is lazy and irresponsible. The previous were two examples of what is known as the halo effect and the devil effect. In this paper I will be discussing how the halo effect can be both positive and negative, depending on whether or not it is affecting a person or product. I will also be discussing how the devil effect is something that is always negative because it is basically an assumption that doesn’t allow room for a real evaluation of a person or product. According to Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication, written by Ronald B. Alder, Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, and Russell F. Proctor II, the halo effect is, â€Å"the tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person [or product] on the basis of one positive characteristic† (396). The halo effect can be very effective and good for products. What I mean by this is that is can help with company sales, like we can see with Apple. According to the article Creating the Brand Halo Effect. † Branding Strategy Insider, written by Derrick Daye and Brad VanAuken, â€Å"Profits were up 384 percent. And the stock was up 177 percent. And Apple’s net profit margin increased from 3. 3 percent to 9. 6 percent, an astonishing jump. Apple put the bulk of its marketing budget behind the iPod creating a halo effect that helped the entire Apple product line. : † We can see that customers have this psychological association or imprint of the â€Å"iPod† with â€Å"Apple† because of a strategic/ marketing move by the company: â€Å"To cut through the clutter in today’s overcommunicated society, place your marketing dollars on your best horse. Then let that product or service serve as a ‘halo effect’ for the rest of the line. † This is exactly what Apple did and it worked out in their favor. Now, when someone hears Apple, they think iPod, and because they think iPod they think things like â€Å"stylish, innovative, etc, and will have no probably investing in more products by Apple. The decision to purchase will be easy and quick. When it comes to a person, the halo effect can of course be beneficial for the person who is pretty, and therefore intelligent, but when it comes to the person who is overweight and therefore lazy, it can pose an issue. This would be the devil effect. The devil effect, or the reverse halo effect, is the tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person/product on the basis of one negative characteristic or trait. According to the article, Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What is Beautiful is Good, written by Comila Shahani-Denning, â€Å"There is considerable empirical evidence that physical attractiveness impacts employment decision making, with the result that the more attractive individual, the greater the likelihood that that person will be hired. This is generalization is known as the ‘what is beautiful is good’ stereotype† (14). What we can see from this quote is basically that if a beautiful woman comes in to interview for a managers position she will most likely be hired versus, lets say, an obese woman. Based solely on looks, and not on qualifications, the hirer will have already assumed that because this woman is beautiful she must also be intelligent (halo effect). And because the other woman is obese she just has to be lazy and irresponsible. This is an example of the devil effect. The hirer will probably ask themselves something along the lines of â€Å"if this person cannot manage her own weight how will she manage this office? † It is yet unfortunate, that often many decisions in the business world can be made based on that one negative or undesirable trait in a person. The decision not to hire her because she isn’t skinny and pretty is biased and unfair. â€Å"Making hiring decisions based on non-job-related factors is detrimental to the overall organizational performance† (Shahani-Denning, 14). She may actually be more qualified for the position, and have a more impressive resume and job experience, versus the â€Å"beautiful† woman. When I think about how the halo and devil effect relate to today’s culture/popular culture, I think of the police department and how people get profiled on the street. There is a lot of controversy going on that police profile based too much on looks and not enough on behaviors. For example, there are often times when I am walking down the street or about to take the train and I will see the police stopping a young kid who is dressed baggy. I believe they assume based on his baggy attire that he cannot be anything more than a â€Å"thug/dealer† or delinquent kid cutting school. They may be stopping this kid while someone walking right past them, who might actually look like your average Joe, could actually be the â€Å"thug/dealer. † This would be the devil effect. But, because this average Joe is more attractive in the sense that he isn’t wearing his pants low, he will be overlooked or looked up upon by the police versus the rest of society as someone â€Å"good. † This would be the halo effect. Overall, the halo and devil effect are very interesting. I believe these effects impact that world unconsciously every single day. We can look to many products, such as Apple products, and many people, like those involved in hiring processes to fully understand how both can play out in todays society.

Emiliano Zapata and the Plan of Ayala

Emiliano Zapata and the Plan of Ayala The Plan of Ayala (Spanish: Plan de Ayala) was a document written by Mexican Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata and his supporters in November of 1911, in response to Francisco I. Madero and his Plan of San Luà ­s. The plan is a denunciation of Madero as well as a manifesto of Zapatismo and what it stood for. It calls for land reform and freedom and would become very important to Zapatas movement until his assassination in 1919. Zapata and Madero When Madero called for armed revolution against the Porfirio Dà ­az regime in 1910 after losing crooked elections, Zapata was among the first to answer the call. A community leader from the small southern state of Morelos, Zapata had been infuriated by members of the wealthy class stealing land with impunity under Dà ­az. Zapatas support for Madero was vital: Madero may never have dethroned Dà ­az without him. Still, once Madero took power in early 1911, he forgot about Zapata and ignored calls for land reform. When Zapata once again took up arms, Madero declared him an outlaw and sent an army after him. The Plan of Ayala Zapata was enraged by Maderos betrayal and fought against him with both the pen and the sword. The Plan of Ayala was designed to make Zapatas philosophy clear and draw support from other peasant groups. It had the desired effect as disenfranchised peons from southern Mexico flocked to join Zapatas army and movement. It did not have much effect on Madero, however, who had already declared Zapata to be an outlaw. Provisions of the Plan The Plan itself is a short document, containing only 15 main points, most of which are quite tersely worded. It denounces Madero as an ineffective President and a liar and accuses him (correctly) of trying to perpetuate some of the ugly agrarian practices of the Dà ­az administration. The plan calls for Maderos removal and names as Chief of the Revolution Pascual Orozco, a rebel leader from the north who had also taken up arms against Madero after once supporting him. Any other military leaders who fought against Dà ­az were to help overthrow Madero or be considered enemies of the Revolution. Land Reform The Plan of Ayala calls for all lands stolen under Dà ­az to be immediately returned. There was considerable land fraud under the old dictator, so a great deal of territory was involved. Large plantations owned by a single person or family would have one-third of their land nationalized to be given to poor farmers. Any who resisted this action would have the other two-thirds confiscated as well. The Plan of Ayala invokes the name of Benito Jurez, one of Mexicos great leaders, and compares the taking of land from the wealthy to Juarez actions when taking it from the church in the 1860s. Revision of the Plan Madero barely lasted long enough for the ink on the Plan of Ayala to dry. He was betrayed and assassinated in 1913 by one of his Generals, Victoriano Huerta. When Orozco joined forces with Huerta, Zapata (who hated Huerta even more than he had despised Madero) was forced to revise the plan, removing Orozcos status as Chief of the Revolution, which would henceforth be Zapata himself. The rest of the Plan of Ayala was not revised. The Plan in the Revolution The Plan of Ayala was important to the Mexican Revolution because Zapata and his supporters came to regard it as a sort of litmus test of who they could trust. Zapata refused to support anyone who would not first agree to the Plan. Zapata was able to implement the plan in his home state of Morelos, but most of the other revolutionary generals were not very interested in land reform and Zapata had trouble building alliances. Importance of the Plan of Ayala At the Convention of Aguascalientes, Zapatas delegates were able to insist on some of the provisions of the Plan being accepted, but the government cobbled together by the convention did not last long enough to implement any of them. Any hope of implementing the Plan of Ayala died with Zapata in a hail of assassins bullets on April 10, 1919. The revolution did restore some lands stolen under Dà ­az, but land reform on the scale imagined by Zapata never happened. The plan became part of his legend, however, and when the EZLN launched an offensive in January of 1994 against the Mexican Government, they did so in part because of the unfinished promises left behind by Zapata, the Plan among them. Land reform has become a rallying cry of the Mexican poor rural class ever since, and the Plan of Ayala is often cited.

Was Abigail Adams politically correct to use her influence to defend Essay

Was Abigail Adams politically correct to use her influence to defend womens rights - Essay Example the ladies, we are determined to forment rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."(The Book of Abigail and John, March 1976. Pp. 121-122) By this she meant to remember the women’s rights in the passage of the laws, and the women who worked hard for the independence of America. Her words to that letter were threatening, invoking the power of women to form a rebellion if they were not heard by authorities. She argued that women were not created for sex purpose only. Here, Abigail tried to explain in her letter that women should not be oppressed and should be treated with equality or otherwise break the old system of masculine sovereignty. Abigail was also concerned on discriminations and domestic problems of the people, particularly, her friends, who had to leave Boston. There was a great turmoil and resistance from Boston people over the oppressive taxes by the British government at that time, so the public was restiv e. The famous Boston Tea Party came about in this particular period to demonstrate protests on taxes. The Boston Tea Party that threw loads of tea to the sea was a showdown of protest that imminently led to a revolution. Due perhaps to this commotion, many people had to leave Boston, and that included friends of Adam’s family. Abigail complained about this on her letter to John Adams on July 12, 1775 relating to him the difficulty of Mr. Hayden and Mr. Trott in finding a suitable home in Braintree ( Adams Electronic Archive, n.d.) .Housing was one of the problems that could be articulated in the letter. Therefore, it is a national problem that could only be addressed by the government. She probably felt her husband had the power to give solution to this tight spot of domestic problems. In... The paper describes and outlines the role of the small women Abigail Adams in the history of America. Abigail felt her husband had the power to convince lawmakers to change the fate of women’s lives. In the early days, once women got married, everything had to be consulted to the husband. Women’s roles were to be housewives and to raise children. Working outside the house, or in a factory was in their farthest dreams. All these changed with the American Revolution. Women found new roles and satisfying jobs in seeking the freedom of the country. Perceptions of women on their roles changed too so that it gradually revolutionized their role’s perspectives. As a woman who had connections, Mrs. Adams probably thought she can employ her influence to change the lives’ direction of women; and above all, she was a woman who felt the predicaments of women in the society. Indeed, Abigail Adams was correct, because she sparked the idealism for women and became an infl uential figure of her time. Little did she know that her letter would chart the destiny of women. Had she kept her cool and quiet, progress could have been stalled. . The spirit of activism and heroism which are still felt today is an aftermath of Abigail’s influence and that of the women who insisted on their rights. Once the women were granted privileges, significant changes were made. We now have women leaders in the government and heads of states, representatives and senators. Men and women together showed action and dedication to work for a change.

Case Study on the Feasibility of a new venture Essay

Case Study on the Feasibility of a new venture - Essay Example The initial success of the Cool Moose Creamery in Ontario should be studied for comparison purposes prior to the financial commitment of a franchise investment. Of considerable interest is the notion of whether the initial location of the first business contributed to its success? Moreover, what were the location factors that contributed to the success of the first business? A common refrain in real estate is location, location and location again. This maxim, of course, is not only limited to home prices. Consideration must be given to visibility and accessibility. Obviously, a highly visible location along an extremely busy thoroughfare where the eyes of all passer-bys will be drawn to your sign, thus, making business almost ideal. In a highly competitive business environment, start-ups may find these prime locations already long occupied by established players. There are still options for the establishment of a new business or franchise: buying out an unsuccessful business in an ot herwise useful location or appropriating a property as close as one can get to prime real estate, yet on the fringes. In this case a choice made here could prove to be influential with respect to every other subsequent factor. If a prime location for your franchise of Cool Moose Creamery can be determined, and is theoretically available then, as with most other material decisions, the cost/benefit analysis must come into play. It may be possible to purchase or lease a property in a highly visible location, but this cost must be weighed against future earnings. There must be a sense of the likely revenue within a particular time frame, as well as one should realize how high the benefits of visibility might be depending on a prime location. Even if the money does not come directly out of pocket, such as it is in the case with the $20,000 bank loan that must be sought, too much capital invested in the initial start up could lead to more debt, or more complex financing arrangements that could make the business more trouble than profit. These factors are never easy to predict, but the small business owner must do the best he can while examining – whenever possible examples of similar businesses, and the local operations in similar situations as guides for cost and profitability. Other factors that will influence the success of any franchise may be forces less visible and tangible than location or the initial equipment that must be purchased. Local zoning ordinances must also be taken into account, with respect to both above board and clandestine forces. Even if the zoning regulations and requirements are obeyed with precision, investigation is warranted concerning under-the-table problems or restrictions. Have other business owners complained about a particular individual in city government with control over regulatory decisions that might impede small businesses? Could there be zoning ordinances that have unusual sub-clauses or interpretations that are not obvious at cursory examination but which prove surprisingly problematic after an investment has begun? Question such as these can only be addressed through word-of-mouth, largely from anecdotal accounts, and of course – prior personal experience. This leads the small business owner into the complex question of a financial 'cushion'. One must consider whether it is possible, or feasible to determine minimum initial start up money, and then wait until it is possible to acquire extra funding held in reserve

GALILEO :: essays research papers

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia degli Ammannati in Pisa, Italy. His father, Vincenzo, was a musician. Galileo was the first of six children (though some people believe seven). His family was not rich but they were of nobility. His family moved to Florence in the early 1570’s. Galileo never married but he did have a brief relationship with Marina Gamba. He met her on one of his trips to Venice. She lived with Galileo and bore three children to him. His two daughters, Virginia and Livia were sent to convents. In 1610 Galileo moved to Florence where he took a position at The Court of the Medici family. He left his son, Vincenzio with Marina. In 1613 Marina married Giovanni Bartoluzzi. Vincenzio joined his father in Florence. In 1581 Galileo went to study at the University of Pisa. His father hoped he would study medicine there. Galileo did not study medicine there but he did study the pendulum. According to legend Galileo watched a suspended lamp swing back and forth in the cathedral of Pisa. Galileo did not make his most notable discovery about the pendulum until 1602. He discovered that the time in which a pendulum swings back and forth did not depend on the arc or isochronism of the swing. At the University of Piza Galileo studied physics. He mainly studied and eventually disproved Aristotle approch on physics. Aristotlians believed that heavier objects fell through a medium faster than lighter objects. Galileo disproved the idea by asserting that all objects (no matter the density) fell at the same rate in a vacuum. To be sure of this Galileo performed many experiments. In most he dropped objects from a certain height. In an early experiment Galileo rolled two balls down a slightly sloped hill and then he would determine their positions after equal time intervals. He then wrote a book about his discoveries called De Muto which means â€Å"On Motion†. In 1592 Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua. While there he often visited a place called the Arsenal where Venetian ships were docked. Galileo was always interested in mechanicle devices and this was the perfect place to study them. While at the Arsenal Galileo became interested in nautical devices especially the sector and ship building. In 1593 Galileo was faced with the problem involving the placement of oars in the galleys.

Culture War Essay

Politics play an important role in the overall situation of a country. The political set-up of a state especially in terms of the type of government, political parties, and even the political bickering that exist are vital in creating and implementing laws. This is clearly exemplified in a democratic type of government wherein various parties that have different advocacies, view points and stands on various issues are present. In line with this, the newly elected president of the United States of America, President Barack Obama is trying to pass a bipartisan â€Å"Stimulus Package† in the Congress. Bipartisanship usually takes place in a two-party system wherein two major parties dominate the election in all levels of the government. Bipartisanship also happens when these two major parties put aside their differences and collaborate with each other. In this paper, it will be argued that bipartisanship is dead. This argument is based on three pieces of evidence that give conclusive results that will make it clear that bipartisanship is no longer applicable in the United States. First, according to Patrick Joseph â€Å"Pat† Buchanan, a renowned American political commentator, author, columnist, politician, broadcaster, and senior advisor to three previous U. S. presidents, â€Å"There is a religious war going on in this country [United States], a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself, for this was is for the soul of America. † He delivered this statement during the 1992 Republican National Convention wherein he further explained that this cultural war is a displacement of classic economic conflicts that are caused by newly emergent moral and religious ones. Furthermore, the kind of war that he is referring to is said to be observable in the result of the recent elections wherein there is only a marginal difference of within 2 points. However, this kind of outcome does not give convincing result that there is indeed competitiveness among Americans and that they are for or against one major party. Closely divided votes do not mean deeply divided votes because this does not identify whether a certain group of people hate the other or they are just merely voting out of random. Moreover, it is difficult to identify if Americans only follow two political perspectives that are based on the two major parties that exist in the country. This is due to the fact that the media is not normal in the country. Media incentives are often used in order for those people involved in this field to sensationalize a particular issue. In this sense, not only is it difficult to identify the real stand of the American people when it comes to issues because the media could also influence the people’s way of thinking in order for them to take problems as either black and or in variations. Second, through the article entitled â€Å"From Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America,† the writer Morris P. Fiorina, debunks the observation that Americans are highly polarized especially in terms of cultural or social issues. He also challenges the idea that this polarization has heightened the concept of partisanship in the electorate and Washington by arguing that it is the political elites who are becoming more polarized. Morris stated that due to the fact that political elites, especially the candidates for office, are more polarized in terms of party and ideological lines and they also manipulate the choices available to their voters. As a result, it established a distinction of the electorate, as well as a deceitful appearance that there is indeed polarization in the mass public (Fiorina, 2005). Moreover, in the study conducted by Fiorina, he compared the voting behavior and the position of Americans when it comes to specific issues that define culture war including gun control laws, abortion, sexual orientation, sexual discrimination, and others. He used the blue and red states wherein the blue are the recognized Democrat states and the red are the Republican states. The result of the study shows that states are similar in many instances. This is proven by the data which identified that four out of ten voters in both red and blue states agreed that migration should decrease; as well as seven among the ten deemed that English should be the official language of the United States. Moreover, in terms of issues that are considered part of the culture war, differences are still observable. Nevertheless, results give proof that there is a similarity in the stand of Americans when it comes to these issues. The comparison of the blue and red states show that there is many similarities and some notable differences but very little variation for a culture between states to exist (Fiorina, 2005). Third, a recent survey deals with Obama Ratings by Party Identification that illustrates independent parties and other parties that do not fall as either as a Democrat or Republican parties. The Inauguration Week showed that 90% positive ratings came from the Democrats and also a substantial 67% came from the independent and other parties. On the other hand, only 42. 7% positive ratings came from the Republicans. Similar results is also seen during the post-inauguration week wherein 87. 3% from the Democrats and 61. 3% from independent and other parties have positive remarks for Obama while only 32. 7% from the Republicans feel the same way. In this sense, it can be clearly seen that independent and other parties also have an important role when it comes to supporting any political actions that Obama will make. Moreover, this also signifies that Americans are not simply polarized into two major parties. The discussions above of the three pieces of evidence clearly identifies that bipartisanship is dead in the United States. Bipartisanship is no longer applicable because most Americans have more similarities when it comes to important issues even those that are under the cultural or social realm. The stand point of Americans is no longer identified in just two opposite poles. Rather, the political elite and irresponsible media of the country are the ones responsible for shaping the United States’ society to be such. In reality, states that are often identified as either red or blue do not really have much distinction when it comes to the vital concerns of the country because they have more similar stands than differences. Being the case, bipartisanship is not applicable in a society that is not or no longer polarized. Reference Fiorina, M. P. (2005). Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

The Bible and Archaeology

An important step forward in scientific archaeological research, and a 19th-century outgrowth of the previous centurys Enlightenment  was the search for the truth of the events written about in the ancient historical accounts of the past. The main truth of the Bible, Torah, Koran, and the Buddhist sacred texts among many others is (of course) not a scientific one but a truth of faith and religion. The roots of the scientific study of archaeology are deeply planted in the establishment of the boundaries of that truth. Is the Bible Fact or Fiction? This is one of the most common questions I get asked as an archaeologist and it is one for which I have yet to find a good answer. And yet the question is at the absolute heart of archaeology, central to the growth and development of archaeology, and it is the one that gets more archaeologists into trouble than any other. And, more to the point, it brings us back to the history of archaeology. Many if not most citizens of the world are naturally curious about ancient texts. After all, they form the basis of all human culture, philosophy, and religion. As discussed in the earlier parts of this series, at the end of the Enlightenment, many archaeologists began actively searching for the cities and cultures described in the available ancient texts and histories, such as Homer and the Bible, Gilgamesh, Confucian texts, and the Vedic manuscripts. Schliemann sought Homers Troy, Botta sought Nineveh, Kathleen Kenyon sought Jericho, Li Chi sought An-Yang, Arthur Evans at Mycenae, Koldewey at Babylon, and Woolley at Ur of the Chaldees. All of these scholars and more sought archaeological events in the ancient texts. Ancient Texts and Archaeological Studies But using ancient texts as the basis for historical investigation was—and still is—fraught with peril in any culture: and not just because the truth is hard to parse out. Governments and religious leaders have vested interests in seeing that religious texts and nationalistic myths remain unchanged and unchallenged—other parties might learn to see the ancient ruins as blasphemous. Nationalistic mythologies demand that there is a special state of grace for a particular culture, that the ancient texts are received wisdom, that their specific country and people are the center of the creative world. No Planet-Wide Floods When early geological investigations proved without a doubt that there was no planet-wide flood as described in the Old Testament of the Bible, there was a great cry of outrage. Early archaeologists fought against and lost battles of this sort time and again. The results of David Randal-McIvers excavations at Great Zimbabwe, an important trading site in southeastern Africa, were suppressed by the local colonial governments who wanted to believe that the site was Phoenician in derivation and not African. The beautiful effigy mounds found throughout North America by Euroamerican settlers were wrongly attributed to either the mound builders or a lost tribe of Israel. The fact of the matter is that ancient texts are renditions of ancient culture which may be partly reflected in the archaeological record and partly will not be—not fiction nor fact, but culture. Better Questions So, lets not ask if the Bible is true or false. Instead, lets ask a series of different questions: Did the places and cultures that are mentioned in the Bible and the other ancient texts exist? Yes, in many cases, they did. Archaeologists have found evidence for many of the locations and cultures mentioned in the ancient texts.Did the events that are described in these texts happen? Some of them did; archaeological evidence in the form of physical evidence or supporting documents from other sources can be found for some of the battles, the political struggles, and the building and collapse of cities.Did the mystical things that are described in the texts occur? Its not my area of expertise, but if I were to hazard a guess, if there were miracles that occurred, they wouldnt leave archaeological evidence.Since the places and the cultures and some of the events that are described in these texts happened, shouldnt we just assume that the mysterious parts also happened? No. Not any more than since Atlanta burned, Scarlett OHara really was dumped by Rhett Butler. There are so many ancient texts and stories about how the world began and many are at variance with one another. From a global human standpoint, why should one ancient text be more accepted than any other? The mysteries of the Bible and other ancient texts are just that: mysteries. It is not, and never has been, within the archaeological purview to prove or disprove their reality. That is a question of faith, not science.