I wonder why people associate good looking with intelligent.

First impression is very important in determining how you want to be perceived or judged when meeting new people for the first time, when you are trying to make new friends or build a connection, going for a job interview and many more. But what we don’t know is that first impression could be biased based on the global evaluation of a person.

For example, if someone has a likable personality, people will naturally assume that they are friendly, have good manners, brilliantly intellectual and so on. This is called the Halo effect.

Halo Effect is a process of cognitive bias where we judge people based on other people’s opinion or evaluation. It is believed to be a learned behavior where people had experienced it during their young age.

Fairy tales like Snow White or Sleeping beauty is usually portrayed as a beautiful princess and handsome princes, while the ‘evil’ villain are often presented as ‘old’ and ‘ugly’. The pleasing characters are described having ethical values like honest and friendly, while hideous character displayed as the wicked and malevolent. 

Halo effect or also known as the physical attractiveness stereotype is a bias assessment that happen in our society where we form an impression of person’s characteristics based on judgement that was given from others or factors that are completely unrelated. Society believed that “What is beautiful is good” and refers to the habit of them to rate individuals with more favorable characteristics as admirable.

Another example can be taken from the movies. We often see the main character to be attractive and beautiful. Rarely do we see any main character to be hideous and ugly (aside from Shrek). They need to be good looking or at least muscular or have a sexy curve. 

With that good looking face, handsome or pretty, they will associate that main character with good traits such as intelligent, kind, talented and badass. 

That is why attractive people can benefit a lot from just their pretty face. In reality, not all attractive people had a kind heart. And thus, leaving those with the average feature to be left out even if they are the kindest people you ever met.