Hi, I’m Nithya Sudhir. I collect words, chase patterns, and write about whatever makes me curious.

It’s Tuesday.

If you suddenly found yourself rifling through resale sites, hunting down a yellow-gold Cartier Santos Demoiselle, after seeing Taylor Swift’s engagement photo saturate your feed — don’t worry, you weren’t alone.

Maybe you didn’t even intend to buy; maybe you just wanted to look.

But that impulse, that tug of curiosity, is the quiet machinery of psychology at work.

And if Beyoncé’s “halo, halo, halo” started looping in your head while you scrolled?

Even better. Because that’s exactly where this story begins.

You’ve been caught in the Halo.

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One photograph. One ring. One watch. And suddenly the entire universe around Taylor Swift shimmered with new desirability.

Cartier felt more covetable, Ralph Lauren more elegant, luxury itself more within reach.

You didn’t consciously decide that — your brain did it for you.

This is called the Halo Effect.

The Halo Effect is a perception error — our brains take one positive trait and let it color everything else.

The same trick that makes us believe that if a website is beautifully designed, then the product must be of high quality. Or a well designed restaurant must serve great food, or that an articulate speaker must also be trustworthy.

It’s why people rate attractive people as having a better personality and as being more knowledgeable.

⚡ Flashback:

In a 1920 study, psychologist Edward Thorndike asked commanding officers to rate their soldiers on a host of traits: physique, intelligence, leadership, character.

The officers hadn’t met the soldiers. They were judging largely from appearance.

Thorndike noticed something unsettling: the ratings bled together.

If a soldier was tall or good-looking, he was also judged to be smarter, braver, more dependable.

The conclusion was stark: we don’t evaluate traits in isolation; we let one quality define the whole person.

Remember, the opposite is true too. (Less commonly called the Horn effect.)

And here’s the kicker: once our brains make that judgment, we double down.

We seek out information that confirms our first impression and quietly ignore (or reinterpret) anything that contradicts it.

Studies have shown that when the same food products are labeled either “organic” or “conventional,” the “organic” products receive higher ratings and consumers are willing to pay more for them.

Why does this happen?

Simply, because it's efficient.

Our brains don’t process people like spreadsheets — we build quick stories.

We grab onto one standout trait and let it color the rest.

This week, two cultural icons proved just how powerful that glow can be.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement wasn’t just a cultural moment — it was an economic one.

Victoria Beckham’s beauty line closed the year with £113 million in revenue — a 22% year-over-year jump. Hero products like her £37 “Posh” lipstick and kohl eyeliners fly off shelves, one selling every 30 seconds in the UK.

But it isn’t pigment alone moving those units. It’s Beckham herself.

Her Instagram tutorials, her curated aesthetic, her long-cultivated aura of refinement—that’s the glow customers are really buying.

How can brands use the halo effect?

Taylor Swift and Victoria Beckham didn’t just have good weeks; they reminded us that the bias is simple, but the consequences are staggering: when one glow shines, everything around it looks brighter.

As always, hit reply if something in here hits home.

See you next week,
Nithya

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