The spotlight effect is the tendency for individuals to overestimate the degree to which others notice them (Gilovich & Savitsky, 1999). That is, people are egocentrically biased, or focused on themselves, and tend to believe that they somehow standout more to others than they actually do (Gilovich & Savitsky, 1999).
My hair is naturally wavy and very frizzy; most days it takes at least blow-drying if not straightening to make it look halfway decent. It sounds silly, but I remember clearly the day in the eighth-grade that I discovered the magic of a hair-straightener. Apparently I was the only one to notice. I was a little nervous after getting up early to make my newly straightened hair just perfect for school because I was absolutely positive that people would notice. I remember being nervous when I first arrived at school and excited to get to my first class where I knew people would be looking at my new hair. Although a few friends of mine thought my hair looked nice that day, it was definitely not the enthusiastic response that my eight-grade mind was expecting. I think that I honestly thought that a spotlight would be on me that day. :)
I still fall pray to the spotlight effect, but after talking to some of my friends about it this week I feel that I'm not alone. To just see what would happen, I randomly told one of my friends (who looked exactly the same way she does everyday) that she looked different to see what she would say. She told me that she was waiting when I would bring up the fact that her new makeup looked a little much. It is always kind of funny when a friend remarks about how their hair looks that day or how their face is broken out and you look up realizing that you would never have noticed.
Gilovich, T. & Savitsky, K. (1999). The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency: Egocentric assessments of how we are seen by others. American Psychological Society, 8, 165-168.
2 comments:
I went through the same thing. For about a month I put a lot of effort into my hair and never wore it the same way twice. One time I was kinda iffy about whether my style was "rad" and asked my friend if she liked it better today than yesterday. She said she thought it was the same both days. I was baffled.
I really liked the mini experiment you did with your friend. Even though you didn't actually notice anything, she knew exactly what you "noticed". Her reaction also kinda implies self-verification. By saying herself that her make-up was a little too much, which seems a little negative, she inferred that when you said different you meant bad different just like she already thought. Also by saying that she wondered when you would bring it up, she is assuming that you would agree with her which is more false-consensus effect.
It's encouraging that people don't always notice our bad hair days or when our faces break out, but it's a bit concerning when our emotions aren't noticed the way we think they are, which is known as the illusion of transparency effect. This effect states that individuals think their emotions and inner feelings are more obvious to outsiders than they actually are. Sadly, it seems that important things might go unnoticed, too; for example, someone who thinks she is obviously unhappy and that her friends will notice and therefore cheer them up, may be made even more unhappy when her friends don't notice. Her unhappiness could then be multiplied by feeling she's ignored. So, even though your lovely hair wasn't noticed, at least your unhappiness over your hair not been raved over probably wasn't noticed either. :)
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