Dependence of the correlation between the masses of the most massive merger and of the hot inner stellar halo of a galaxy on the operational definition of the latter. We show the Pearson correlation coefficient between M_*, Ex1 and M_{*, halo(r < 2 Re)} as a function of λ_z, cut, the maximum level of orbital “coldness” adopted to define inner-halo stars. Namely, in the plot we adopt different definitions of hot inner stellar halo by imposing λ_z < λ_z, cut. Dashed curves in different colors indicate galaxies in subsamples g1–g9, and the solid black curve indicates galaxies of the whole sample.