Most people experience the spotlight delusion at some point: the unpleasant feeling that everyone is staring at you and analyzing you. Do you remember the first time you met your partner’s family? Maybe you were invited to a barbecue or birthday party, walked through the door, and had a horrible sensation of being watched and scrutinized. For most, the spotlight delusion is most acute during adolescence, though it can be experienced at any stage of life. Unfortunately, it can also be tremendously damaging, spoiling relationships, inhibiting careers, and generally holding people back.
The Spotlight Effect
In essence, the spotlight effect is the feeling that everyone is observing and judging you. Or, more specifically, the (usually mistaken) belief that you are the center of attention. It is called the spotlight effect because it feels like standing under the beam of a spotlight (think of those old war movies where the British officer is trying to escape a German POW camp at night when, suddenly, the beams of the searchlights all fall upon him at once). If you have ever been introduced around the office on your first day, you have probably experienced this. Of course, not everyone reacts in the same way. Some enjoy being the center of attention. Indeed, some enjoy it so much they’d rather receive negative attention than none at all! Others cannot bear it under any circumstances – not even when being praised.
Those who experience it generally turn into mind-readers and try to guess what other people are thinking as well. The answer, by the way, is usually “nothing at all”. And this has been backed up by research. For example, the 2000 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology records an experiment on the spotlight effect. Groups of college students were asked to perform a simple task, during which one of them was asked to wear a silly t-shirt. Afterwards, those wearing the t-shirt had to guess how many other people in the group had noticed and could remember the singer whose face had appeared on the front. They guessed around half. In fact, the figure was 25%. Crucially, when tapes of this experiment were shown to other groups of students, they correctly guessed that around 25% would identify and remember the singer. In other words, wearing the embarrassing t-shirt made people overestimate how interested others would be in such a thing.
Consequences
Unfortunately, the consequences of this spotlight delusion can be more serious than a mere pounding heart or sweaty palms. A brilliant young professor, for example, may resign his post because he cannot face tutorials and lectures. Or a surgeon may find it impossible to concentrate during operations because of the nurses who stand beside him. And countless individuals have delayed or even abandoned their bid for promotion because they fear the jealousy, gossip and resentment of their co-workers.
And of course the spotlight delusion also limits the amount of fun someone gets out of life. Indeed, one of the main reasons people drink alcohol at weddings and parties is to escape this sense of being watched and judged. Even more seriously, the spotlight delusion can restrict new scientific, medical, and artistic ideas as people hesitate to suggest something original for fear of ridicule. With this in mind, some business managers will actively encourage workers to call out stupid ideas during a meeting. The goal is not to implement such ideas, of course, but to break down the fear.
The spotlight effect also discourages people from playing with their identity and fully and joyfully expressing themselves. Imagine, for example, that somebody becomes interested in the 19th century aesthetes. He starts reading The Chap magazine and models himself on the glossy photographs he sees inside. But he cannot summon up the nerve to wear such elegant clothes in public and so sticks to his boring old jeans and sneakers. In other words, the spotlight delusion restricts free expression. But it also makes society duller. It is no coincidence that those who love fashion and art, or who wish to pursue an alternative lifestyle, flock to the most liberal and alternative areas of the great cities (Camden in London, for example, or Greenwich Village in New York). They do so not only because they hope to meet like-minded people but because they cannot bear to walk down the main street of their small, provincial town dressed like Boy George!
Overcoming the Spotlight Delusion
The good news is that this delusion can be mastered and controlled. Simply being conscious of what’s happening is half the battle. If you can walk into a room and quietly say to yourself “uggh, here comes that stupid spotlight delusion again,” you will be getting somewhere. And the more often you practise this, the deeper the message will sink. Remember, you are almost certainly overestimating not only the amount of attention people are paying you but also the strength of their feelings. Even if someone has noticed your frizzy hair or how flat your joke fell, they probably didn’t care all that much. After all, most people are dealing with their own spotlight delusion!
Many never quite forget the awful intensity of feeling during adolescence, when everyone really was interested in you and when no embarrassment, failure or humiliation passed unnoticed. But those days are gone. Adults are nowhere near so interested or observant as you imagine.
Another very effective technique is to embrace rather than shun the spotlight. By doing so you will burn out your fear response. So, for example, you could wear your brightest, most eccentric clothes. Or, if you are very conscious of your laugh, you could make a point of laughing loudly and repeatedly each time you meet up with friends. Draw other people’s attention to it and say “oh, God, isn’t my laugh awful!…it sounds like a car engine backfiring”. Imagine two people walk into work on a Monday morning wearing odd socks. The first spends the day trying to keep them hidden, the second makes a big joke out of it and tells all his work colleagues what he has done. Who is most likely to experience the spotlight effect?
The more you act in this way, the more you will re-wire your brain. People with agoraphobia or social anxiety, for example, will often force themselves into situations that cause immense fear. They go towards it and embrace it, allowing the fear to spike and then ebb away. Each time they do so, they reinforce the idea that there is nothing to fear. And as this idea takes hold, they cultivate it, constantly repeating the words “so what”, almost like a mantra. If you fall over as you enter a room, just get up, laugh, shrug and say “so what?”. Or, if you make a remark during a college seminar and then realize it was ridiculous and wrong, again, just say “so what”. Eventually, this will become an instinctive response. You have more power over the spotlight effect than you realize. You can choose not to believe that everyone is staring and not to care even if they are.
The spotlight delusion is natural and understandable. Human beings are tribal creatures and their position within the group (their status) matters. Indeed, throughout much of human evolution a loss of status could be fatal. So, in a sense, we are hardwired to notice the impression we are making and to be conscious of the ripples of approval or disapproval. But, though it is natural, it isn’t helpful. The sense that everyone is staring at you is not only a delusion but a harmful one that will restrict your ability to live, love, and fully enjoy your life.