What is the spotlight effect in psychology ?

Why do we think, that if we have a dirty shirt everybody is going to recognize it ? Is there a science behind it ?

Well maybe you do not think like that exactly, however I guess everybody had this feeling when poeple look at them like, oh fuck ...he looks at me because of ..A ..B ..C. But people acutally don't care that much as u think. Why ? Stay Tuned!

Every Information is based on the research of the nobelpricewinner in economic psychology in 2017, Richard Thaler, from his new book, nudge.

The Spotlight Effect

People tend to care about social norms, because they are convinced that others exactly look at what they are doing.
For example: If somebody goes to an event in a suit wheras everybody else is wearing casual clothes, then this person has the feeling, that everybody around him looks at him like, ''what the hell is this guy doing''.

Prof. Tom Gilovich (an psychologist from Cronell University USA) and his colleges proofed that phenomenon and gave it the name spotlight effekt.

-Prof. Tom Gilovich-

Tom Gilovich perfomed an experiment with a group of students who had to fill out a survey. The examiner of the experiment had to wear a t-shirt that shows the singer Barry Manilow. After a few minutes the examiner with the shirt left the room and the prof. asked him, what he think how many stduents in this room can probably tell the right person on his shirt. This valuation was roughly about 46%. The interesting thing was that in actual fact just about 21% of the group could make a correct answer.

The reason for this is simple. Because people think that their fellows observe them, we tend to adapt to the expectations of others. The lesson of the story is that far less people put the attention on yourself than u might think ;)