I’ve written previously about the halo effect. The psychological phenomenon in which we take an individual positive trait, like someone being attractive, and generalise this across their whole life, assuming they must be happier, earn more money, be more honest, etc.

I see the same thing happening in the area of health and fitness, where if someone is attractive or has a physique that many aspire to have, then we assume that this person knows what they talking about. It’s also known as physical attractiveness bias.

And with the rise of Instagram and Facebook health “celebrities” this is definitely something to be wary of.

What I see is people who are attractive amassing large groups of followers. These individuals then make claims that can range from banal and harmless through to incredibly dangerous, and people follow them.

They look at this person’s body, imagine that if they do what they are suggesting that they too can have a similar body, and so they follow the advice or they buy the product.

I have a couple of suggestions to deal with this.

First off, imagine if the person who was making this suggestion were in a different body, would you think the same way about this information?

For example, if they were much heavier would you be so eager to follow their weight loss ideas? Or if they were much smaller would you believe their claims about how much it leads to building muscles? Or if they were less attractive, would you believe that their method helps to turn heads and lead to the partner of your dreams?

Because typically it’s not because the information is so sound that you are hooked, it’s because of someone’s physical attributes. You are being swayed by “beauty” or “attraction” rather than solid science or information.

So search out other people who are saying the same thing. See if the science stands up. Find someone who isn’t conventionally attractive and is speaking a similar message and see if you feel so drawn to the information. Imagine they were the first person you heard talking about it, does it have the same pull?

The second idea would be to see if you can find someone who is equally beautiful/attractive/ripped but is suggesting the complete opposite.

So if someone is saying that they look or feel the way that they do because they’ve followed a paleo diet, can you find someone who is saying the same thing but while following a vegan diet?

Or if someone is saying they look or feel the way that they do because they do high intensity interval training, can you find someone who is saying the same thing but has followed something like Starting Strength?

This is to help show you that people can do well on a wide variety of eating styles or training styles. It’s not that there is just the one way to do something. And that possibly the attributes that you admire in this person aren’t anything to do with their diet or exercise regime, but due to them winning the genetic lottery.

Part of the impetus for this article was that I recently saw a post encouraging people to drink more water.

It said “The best way to boost up your metabolism, improve your digestive system and add that extra glow to your skin, shine to your hair and tons of energy is to increase your daily water intake!” It then contained a picture that said “Daily goal = 2 gal = 7.5L = 32 cups”.

This person was encouraging people to drink 2 gallons or 7.5 litres of water a day. This is a completely insane amount of water to be consuming. At best someone is going to be visiting the bathroom non-stop. At worst they risk water intoxication and death.

A couple of comments under the post suggested that this might be dangerous but the majority were people who responded that they wanted to try it out.

The person who made this post is a model who also happens to give out health and nutrition advice. And it feels like people were happy to go along with her suggestions at least in part because she is attractive.

This isn’t to say just because someone is conventionally attractive or has a body that we aspire to, that we should disregard them. That they are going to be stupid and not know what they are talking about.

But what I’m suggesting is that people be aware of this bias that we all have. And to as best we can, evaluate the information on its merits, not because of how the person who is sharing that information looks.

We’re never going to be perfect with this as all decisions contain some level of irrationality. But the more you can be aware and attempting to put ideas through this filter, the less often you’ll be duped.

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