Influence of Future Choice Importance and Arousal upon the Halo Effect

Two determinants of the magnitude of the influence of anticipated choice on the halo effect are investigated: importance of future choice and arousal. Male subjects ranked photographs on positive personality traits. Half of the photographs were of persons about which they anticipated making a choice. In confirmation of the hypotheses, (a) the intercorrelation of the rankings was greater for the choice photographs than for the nonchoice photographs when the subjects anticipated an important choice, but not when they anticipated an unimportant choice; and (b) the intercorrelation was greater for the choice photographs than for the nonchoice photographs when the subjects were aroused by caffeine and uninformed as to the source of their arousal, but not when they were informed as to the source of their arousal or not aroused.