ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Is Happiness for All? The Happiness Halo Effect on Coworkers’ Perceptions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
- 2Ariel University, Ari'el, Israel
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The halo effect is a cognitive bias, in which a specific attribute of an individual influences their overall evaluation. The "halo effect of happiness" refers to a situation in which happier individuals receive a more positive global evaluation. While previous research assessed perceptions of happy employees by supervisors, this study examines how happy colleagues are perceived by their peers. We hypothesize that employees' happiness would positively predict their perceptions of happy colleagues' performance, and that affective attitudes and trust would mediate this relationship. A sample of 863 employees in the United States completed an online survey assessing their perceptions of happy colleagues' job performance, affective attitudes and trust, and various measures of happiness. The findings indicate that there is a happiness halo effect in perceptions of happy colleagues' performance and reveal that employees' own happiness predicts these perceptions through their affective attitudes and trust in happy colleagues. Overall, this study highlights that while their colleagues generally perceive happy employees positively, unhappy colleagues may perceive them less favorably. Organizations should consider the diverse needs of all employees to enhance overall well-being.
Keywords: Happiness halo effect, employee perceptions, job performance, Peerevaluation, Employee well-being
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amir, Shtudiner and Shavit. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Avital Amir
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.