Have you ever seen an ugly guy with a HB10?
Take this guy for instance:


How does he end up with her?


When you see this picture, you might ask yourself all kinds of questions: did she shag him because he's rich? famous? talented? Did she find him sexy? Was she attracted to his looks?
It's safe to assume girls don't usually shag guys they find completely repulsive, or whom they are not attracted to... So what is going on here?

To get some answers, let's examine another picture of that guy:

Do you view the picture differently if I tell you that the guy it features is:
- a waiter in a cafe
- a notorious psychopath who has raped and killed 14 women
- a famous singer and musician
- an award winning scientist

In all likelihood, the presumed occupation of this person will have affected the way you perceive the picture. This is a well documented psychological phenomenon known as the 'halo effect'.
The halo effect is a bias where a trait of a person influences another trait or traits of that person. Typically, if someone is handsome or pretty, most people will tend to perceive them as more intelligent & more successful.

HOWEVER -and this is where the halo effect becomes useful to a PUA- you can make this phenomenon work for you....
Assuming you are not particularly handsome ; if you manage to develop another quality -be it your charm, your sense of humour, your ability to tell stories... etc- to a high degree, that quality will overshadow your lack of physical attractiveness, and make you appear as far more handsome than you actually are.

Success of course is also one of these qualities which radiates, and make guys appear more attractive. Are Mick Jagger, Steve Tyler, Snoop Dogg, or even Bruce Willis, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro... really sex symbols?
Yet, some women genuinely find them physically attractive... not objectively because of their physical appearance, but because of what they radiate...

Develop one quality, fine tune it, keep working at it and improving it: because of the halo effect, this one strong point will influence how people perceive you in every other respect.!

(the guy in the picture was in fact Serge Gainsbourg, a famous French musician and womaniser who among a string of many others, had a torrid affair with Brigitte Bardot)

very interesting subject indeed and i've been thinking bout writing somthing on this...

The halo-effect and horn-effect (and the primacy/ ecensy effect for that matter) can indeed influence u'r succes as a PUA.

1 thing u should note though is that with the primacy-effect the image a person has of u gets influenced in a positive way by the FIRST or one of the first characteristics she picks up about you. so u could state that the opener and the follow up are the most important part of pick-up (which would be a turner cause now it isen't perceived as being to important.)

the recensy effect states the exact oposite, the end of the conversation changes the way the girl will later look back upon it. (which could proof usefull for MM and such )

I'm going to nitpick here: it's undeniable that in any seduction there is a primacy effect (although research has shown that people do tend to form stronger bonds in the long term when they weren't attracted to each other at first).

However: the opener is not important, in the sense that it doesn't really matter what you say.
The impression you create during the opener itself is clearly important though.... In fact, create a bad impression, and in all likelihood your opener is as far as you will go before being rejected.

Firs things first. Shes not an hb 10, she does have nice legs, but shes not THAT hot.

Second, u see famous looks challenged guys with famous hot women often, take
lyle lovitt and julia roberts.

Who knows why celebrities hook up, they have agendas and objectives. And most of them know their marriages wont last more than a couple of years. Plus REALLY hot women are used to looks all the time so they may search for something else in a guy, usually somebody loyal and trustworthy.

Hey a woman would rather have a regular looking guy who stays faithful, than a real handsome guy who can get woman every day of the week.

but it is possible for a woman to be attracted to other things, not just looks. Some women like successful men, or men with careers that can further their own. In the business world u see hotties hooking up with regular guys because they want to get to that level themselves, and what better way to do it than shagging somebody important in the company.

Its a trade off. Just about everybody settles for mates anyway. Some people meet, fall in love and marry somebody, but later on realize they shouldnt have married, cause they see so many other opportunities.

Anyway, looks matter, but other things are attractive to women too. Us guys usually want the best looking woman we can find though, which is why the wealthy and celebrity guys date and marry hotties.

"Firs things first. Shes not an hb 10, she does have nice legs, but shes not THAT hot."

warning NSFW: http://toolegit2quit.files.wordpress.co ... 3_1991.jpg ; http://unionlosangeles.com/wp-content/u ... 507nh0.jpg
Don't know if she's a HB10 or not ; don't really care... point is: she's hot enough

"Second, u see famous looks challenged guys with famous hot women often, take lyle lovitt and julia roberts.
Who knows why celebrities hook up, they have agendas and objectives. And most of them know their marriages wont last more than a couple of years. Plus REALLY hot women are used to looks all the time so they may search for something else in a guy, usually somebody loyal and trustworthy."

Sure... I also see my neighbour Travis who's 18st with a HB9... I've dated quite a few HB8 and HB9, and -eventhough I look nowhere nearly as bad as Gainsbourg- I'm nothing memorable.

"Hey a woman would rather have a regular looking guy who stays faithful, than a real handsome guy who can get woman every day of the week."

To marry maybe... but that's like prison after a while... For a same night lay, the guy had better have something special on top of being a decent guy. If it's not looks, that's where the halo effect comes in

"but it is possible for a woman to be attracted to other things, not just looks. Some women like successful men, or men with careers that can further their own. In the business world u see hotties hooking up with regular guys because they want to get to that level themselves, and what better way to do it than shagging somebody important in the company."

You don't understand my point: it's not that they're simply attracted to other things... It's that, because of the halo effect, the guy actually seems to them more handsome than he actually is.

"Its a trade off. Just about everybody settles for mates anyway. Some people meet, fall in love and marry somebody, but later on realize they shouldnt have married, cause they see so many other opportunities.
Anyway, looks matter, but other things are attractive to women too. Us guys usually want the best looking woman we can find though, which is why the wealthy and celebrity guys date and marry hotties."

tbh, you just sound like you lack in confidence somewhat...

the halo effect is probably real, there are many things that are attractive to women, but being good looking is like having a bult in attraction magnet, people are drawn to good looking people, even young kids have been studied to like people who they perceived to be nice looking. And good looking kids are usually popular in school.

anyway, no im not lacking in confidence, I think Im pretty dog gonnit awesome LOLLLLLLL

I dont know why ud draw that conclusion from me stating that most people who marry settle.

Sure, but that's the halo effect too: good looking people tend to appear more intelligent and more successful than they really are... I thought I'd mentionned that in my original post?

Great post... makes a lot of sense to me.

Thank you for that!

Looks are subjective. To me this girl is average looking to you she is hot.

As far as your halo effect goes, its nothing more than how people perceive you. Why make it more complex than what it is?

I'd love for it to be 'my' halo effect, but unfortunately it isn't... it was discovered by Edward Thorndike in the 1920s, then reconfirmed in a study by Dion and Berscheid in 1972...

Also...

yes, it is how people perceive you... but that's not nothing... that's enormous! I'm afraid you're not quite grasping what the halo effect means:

Ok... suppose you were a 6 physically... what the halo effect means is that, if you develop a desirable trait to a high level (such as your sense of humour, or your ability to tell stories), without changing anything about your looks or the way you dress, you will actually suddenly become a 7 or even an 8!

That's right... you have remained exactly the same looks-wise, but suddenly everyone sees you as much more attractive physically!

And it's not something that is reserved to celebrities... it works equally well for the average man in the street, if he knows how to use it to his advantage...

So what are the qualities that you should aim to perfect? What are the traits which are the most desirable for women, and which will make you appear as much more attractive than you actually are?

For instance, what do you think women would value more: kindness, altruism, or bravery?
Is it better for you to appear as a 'protector of loved ones' (to borrow an expression from Mystery', or as a risk taker?

Well... the truth can sometimes be counter-intuitive... In this particular case, research by Kelly and Dunbar (2001) shows that bravery trumps altruism and kindness every time...

Therefore, you have got to ask yourself this question: if you are not great looking, and you want to take full-advantage of the halo effect, which would be the most desirable trait for you to develop?
The amazing thing is: only one trait is enough, and will completely influence the way people perceive you in every other respect...

Should you aim to develop a wicked sense of humour? unstoppable confidence? should you intrigue people with your magic skills?...

Well, this will entirely depend on you... how you can play to your existing strength, and what sort of PUA you want to become...

In Summary:

The Halo effect is the sum of your total parts which is visible to other people/women.

Your net value to a woman on display.

Your total package.

Nooo... this is exactly what it is NOT.

It's the sum of your total parts, plus 2 bonus points on each part because you have great confidence/have a wicked sense of humour/are a master story teller/pick your favorite attribute here.

Master one trait... really master it ; excell at it and at putting it forward, and you will appear much better than you are across the board.

In other words it's an illusion... pulling the wool over people's eyes...

It's your total package + 2 bonus points across the board... In other words: it's absolute gold!

Depends on girl.

Let me repeat my self:
Why the hell you are trying to make this more complex than what it is, is beyond me. Why are you trying to make a simple concept so complex and convoluted?

I'm not sure what is so complex and convoluted about what I wrote...

I have tried to be careful how I described the halo effect, because stating something like "its nothing more than how people perceive you" detracts from how powerful a concept it actually is:
the idea that without changing a single thing about your physical appearance, you can suddenly become more physically attractive.

Also: a lot of PUAs take a bit of a shotgun approach to seduction. They work a bit on their body language ; they work on their voice ; they change the way they dress ; they learn a few jokes and a few stories... etc.
They become a bit of Jack-of-all trades-masters-of-none.

This is not necessarily a very effective approach, as if they took only one of these things, and developped it to a high degree, because of the halo effect their improvement across the board would appear as greater.