Spotlight Effect: Why we think everyone is judging us

"I have made a mistake". "I have lisped." "I have a huge pimple." "I wear a sock of each color." "I have badly painted nails." All these phrases have something in common: many people are bothered by the idea that others can detect an imperfection in oneself.

The truth is that most of the people we interact with are not even going to pay attention to it, but we can get there. to obsess over that specific detail that could perhaps make us look bad, believing that everyone is going to see him. We are facing what is known as the spotlight effect., a psychological phenomenon that we are going to talk about in this article.

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What is the spotlight effect?

It is understood by spotlight effect the overestimation that people make of the salience of their behavior or characteristics. In other words, people consider that an act or element of their own is very striking and everyone is going to see it and judge it.

It generally refers to negative elements, such as having done something wrong, having a pimple, or wearing a shirt that causes embarrassment. However, it can also refer to an overestimation of what other people will think of one's own contribution or of some positive trait that others will value and admire. It is more frequent in very introspective people, or

who tend to focus a lot on themselves and their actions.

Thus, we give more importance to a specific element and we think that the environment is going to focus on it, causing this thought the desire to hide it or show it (depending on whether what we believe of said element is negative or positive). But we lose sight of and forget the fact that we are not the core of each other's lives, while they are focused on their own affairs.

experiments carried out

The existence of the spotlight effect is something documented and observed in multiple experiments. One of them was that of Cornell University, in which students were asked to dress in shirts they considered embarrassing. After that, they were asked to evaluate the number of people who had noticed that detail considered embarrassing. Also, people who had observed were asked. The contrasting of the data showed that less than half of the people that the participants thought had noticed them had actually done so.

The same experiment has been carried out in multiple ways with very similar results, with aspects such as hairstyle, or even participation in debates. And not only with physical elements or actions performed: a similar effect has also been observed in the belief that others are able to guess one's own emotional state due to the salience of our behaviors or actions.

repercussions

The spotlight effect is common, but it can generate a series of important consequences for the person who suffers from it. For example, it is closely linked to self-esteem: if we believe that people are paying attention to an element that we judge negative will end up showing insecurity and a decrease in our self-worth perceived.

We focus our attention on the element in question and tend to pay less attention to the rest of the variables and elements present in ourselves or in the environment. Also, this focus It can cause a decrease in the ability to concentrate and performance in other tasks, which in turn can further lower our self-esteem.

It can also cause consequences at the behavioral level, being able to avoid or overexpose situations in which showing up with said element could be embarrassing/proud: for example, not going out or not going to a party because you think that everyone will see and judge the pimple that came out last night former.

It is even possible to relate this effect to some pathologies: body dysmorphic disorder or Eating Disorders These may be examples where a major spotlight effect can be observed. In it body dysmorphic disorder it is produced a fixation with a body part that embarrasses us, and in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, the weight and physical figure that we have becomes an obsession. Those who suffer from them overestimate the salience of these elements and come to distort their own self-perception (seeing themselves fat even when in severely underweight or feeling a deep aversion and concern for a part of themselves), although in these cases it is more related to one's own self-perception

A frequent effect throughout the life cycle

The spotlight effect is something that most of us have experienced at some point. being especially frequent in adolescence. In fact, this effect is directly related to one of the typical mental phenomena of this moment of development: the imaginary audience.

That is, the thought that others are aware and attentive to our actions and performances, something that generates that we can behave in a way that favors the opinion of the rest about us. This is a somewhat self-centered view., thinking that the rest of the environment is going to pay attention to us, but that it is common at times when we are assuming our individuality and creating our own identity.

The imaginary audience is something that as we mature, it disappears to be replaced by the concern for the real audience that we have every day. But even in adulthood, the truth is that we generally tend to overestimate the impression we make on others and the attention paid to us.

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advertising use

The spotlight effect has been known for many years, and has come to be used as an advertising element and for commercial purposes. The concern to cover something that we consider a defect or to attract attention It is something that is used by brands to generate more sales. Obvious examples are advertisements for certain brands of clothing, cosmetics, automobiles, watches, or deodorants. The supposed focus of others on what we wear is used to favor showing a more positive image.

This does not mean that others do not pay attention to what we do or wear, image being something important today. But the truth is that this effect makes us overestimate the importance of specific details and give value to things that do not have it so much.

Bibliographic references

• Gilovich, T. & Husted, V. (2000). The Spotlight Effect in Social Judgment: An Egocentric Bias in Estimates of the Salience of One's Own Actions and Appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; 78(2): 211-222.