“I made a mistake.” “I’ve lisped.” “I have a huge pimple.” “I’m wearing one sock of each color.” “My nails are badly painted.” All these phrases have one thing in common: Many people find the idea that others can detect an imperfection in themselves very disturbing.

The truth is that most people we interact with won’t even notice it, but we can become obsessed with that particular detail that could perhaps make us look bad, believing that everyone will see it. This is what is known as the spotlight effect , a psychological phenomenon that we will talk about in this article.

What is the spotlight effect?

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

It usually refers to negative elements, such as having performed an action poorly, having a pimple, or wearing a T-shirt that creates embarrassment. However, it can also refer to an overestimation of what other people will think of one’s 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 will focus on it, provoking this thought the desire to hide it or show it (depending on whether we think of that element as negative or positive). But we lose sight of and forget the fact that we are not the nucleus of the life of others , being these centred on their own affairs.

Experiments conducted

The existence of the spotlight effect is documented and observed in multiple experiments. One of them was the Cornell University experiment, in which students were asked to wear shirts that they considered embarrassing . After that, they were asked to evaluate the number of people who had noticed this detail considered as shameful. The persons who had observed were also asked. The data comparison showed that less than half of the people who thought they had noticed it had actually done so.

The same experiment has been carried out in many ways with very similar results, with aspects such as hairdressing, or even participation in debates. And not only with physical elements or actions carried out: a similar effect has also been observed in the belief that others are capable of guessing one’s own emotional state due to the salience of our behaviours or actions.

Impact

The spotlight effect is common, but it can have a number 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 looking at an element of their own that we judge to be negative, insecurity will appear and our perceived self-esteem will be diminished.

We focus our attention on the element in question and tend to pay less attention to the other variables and elements present in ourselves or in the environment. Likewise, this focus may generate a decrease in the capacity to concentrate and in performance in other tasks, which in turn may further decrease our self-esteem.

It can also have consequences at the behavioural level, leading to avoidance or overexposure to situations where showing up with such an element could be embarrassing/proud: for example, not going out or not going to a party because you think everyone will see and judge the pimple that has come out of you the night before.

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

A frequent effect throughout the life cycle

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

That is, the thought that others are attentive to our actions and performances, something that generates that we can behave in a way that favors the opinion of others about us. This is a somewhat egocentric vision , thinking that the rest of the environment is going to pay attention to us, but that it is common in the moments in which we are assuming our individuality and creating our own identity.

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

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 up something we consider a defect or to draw attention to it is something that is used by brands to generate more sales. Obvious examples are advertisements for certain brands of clothes, cosmetics, cars, watches or deodorants. The supposed focus of others on what we use is used to favor showing a more positive image.

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

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.