Understanding the spotlight effect
Do you ever sit in meetings and think people are judging what you say, how you look, what you wear, or that the small stain on your shirt is noticeable? I know I have!
We seem to convince ourselves that all eyes are on us. In psychology, this is known as the “Spotlight effect.” It is the phenomenon where people tend to overestimate how much others notice aspects of their appearance or behaviour.
Tom Gilovich published a paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In this study, “the researchers brought in groups of students to complete an unrelated task in the same room and randomly assigned one of the students to put on an embarrassing t-shirt with Barry Manilow on it” (Mendoza-Denton).
The researchers asked the students wearing the embarrassing t-shirt to estimate how many people in the room noticed what they were wearing. The students wearing the shirt estimated that about 50% of the room noticed. In reality, only 25% of the people in the room could identify the Barry Manilow shirt.
Interestingly enough, when different students were asked to watch these groups’ recordings and estimate how many people they thought would notice the shirt, they had a similar estimate to the reality – about 25%. This means that wearing the shirt and being in the situation caused people to overestimate how many people would notice drastically.
Breaking free from the spotlight
We tend to think there is a spotlight on us at all times. But while we worry about what others are noticing about us, in reality, most of them aren’t.
One way to overcome the spotlight effect is to test your belief that other people are noticing and judging you. To do this, it’s helpful to understand a concept identified through research termed the “illusion of transparency,” which asserts that people tend to think that their internal state is visible to others when it truly is not (Disord).
You can reduce the impact of the spotlight effect by focusing your attention outward and noticing other people’s reactions to you. Start to sense & read the room situationally, but do not over-read it! This will help you stop focusing inwardly on your thoughts and what you think others are thinking, as well as notice how little others are paying attention to you.
While it may feel as though everyone knows what you are thinking about yourself, in reality, nobody has the ability to read your mind. Once you can see that people are all caught up in their own world, it will become easier to imagine that the spotlight is not shining on you.
Gaining perspective through feedback
Sometimes, getting peer feedback can help you overcome the bias that causes the spotlight effect, by helping you to put things in perspective (Cuncic). Specifically, if you are worried about other people noticing something about you, you can ask someone that you trust for feedback on how noticeable it is. Their feedback will no doubt not match your perspective.
People are not noticing or watching as much as we think they are!
Understanding and overcoming the spotlight effect can help you feel more confident in meetings and focus on effective communication rather than self-consciousness. Remember, most people are too caught up in their own thoughts to notice the small details you worry about.
