Example
• Consider this example: One morning, you wake up to find your hair
sticking up at strange angles on your head. You can’t find a hat, so
smooth down the random spikes of your hair and dash out the doo
to class. All morning, you are acutely self-conscious about your ver
bad hair day. To your surprise, your friends in class don’t say anythi
Are they secretly laughing to themselves about how ridiculous you
look, or are they too preoccupied with themselves to notice your
spiky hair?
,SPOTLIGHTS AND ILLUSIONS:
WHAT DO THEY TEACH US
ABOUT OURSELVES?
• Why do we often feel that others are paying more attention to us
than they really are? The spotlight effect means seeing ourselves a
center stage, thus intuitively overestimating the extent to which
others’ attention is aimed at us.
, Example:
• Timothy Lawson (2010) explored the spotlight effect by having colle
students change into a sweatshirt emblazoned with “American Eag
before meeting a group of peers. Nearly 40% were sure the observ
would remember what the shirt said, but only 10% actually did. Mo
observers did not even notice when the students changed sweatsh
after leaving the room for a few minutes.
• Consider this example: One morning, you wake up to find your hair
sticking up at strange angles on your head. You can’t find a hat, so
smooth down the random spikes of your hair and dash out the doo
to class. All morning, you are acutely self-conscious about your ver
bad hair day. To your surprise, your friends in class don’t say anythi
Are they secretly laughing to themselves about how ridiculous you
look, or are they too preoccupied with themselves to notice your
spiky hair?
,SPOTLIGHTS AND ILLUSIONS:
WHAT DO THEY TEACH US
ABOUT OURSELVES?
• Why do we often feel that others are paying more attention to us
than they really are? The spotlight effect means seeing ourselves a
center stage, thus intuitively overestimating the extent to which
others’ attention is aimed at us.
, Example:
• Timothy Lawson (2010) explored the spotlight effect by having colle
students change into a sweatshirt emblazoned with “American Eag
before meeting a group of peers. Nearly 40% were sure the observ
would remember what the shirt said, but only 10% actually did. Mo
observers did not even notice when the students changed sweatsh
after leaving the room for a few minutes.
