Influence of scatter on the stellar mass – halo mass relation. Shown are the stellar mass – halo mass relations at redshift z = 0 - 2, with (grey, dashed lines) and without (pink, solid lines) scatter. The scatter is assumed to be Gaussian with a variance of 0.2 dex. The low-mass end, normalisation and turnover mass are barely affected by the scatter. The slope of the high-mass end is steeper for the case with scatter, corresponding to an increase of the parameter δ_⋆ by about 10-20%. The same result holds for a larger scatter of 0.5 dex, with the parameter δ_⋆ increasing by about a factor of 2.