This phenomenon, known as the spotlight effect, can lead toself-consciousnessand anxiety.
What Is the Spotlight Effect?
However, for people with social anxiety, this feeling can be overemphasized.
Getty / Yuval Navot / EyeEm
You may blush or make a run at hide from your coworkers, convinced they pity or mock you.
Some situations where you might notice this include the following:
What Causes the Spotlight Effect?
The spotlight effect is acognitive biasan error in thinking that affects your judgments about yourself and the world.
In this particular case, it is an example of anegocentricbias.
While we can guess what others think, the only perspective we can fully access is our own.
And this tendency to center ourselves can make it feel like we are under the microscope.
Social anxiety is much more than just nervousness.
It reflects differences in brain activity and reactions to your environment.
When people are shown pictures of fearful faces, they experience a heightened fear response.
This tendency can cause you to overestimate your visibility in different situations.
You are more likely to make poor decisions when you make choices based on this exaggerated sense of significance.
For example, a therapist might help you recognize unhelpful thoughts causing you to experience the spotlight effect.
Starting trying to notice what others are doing more.
If a friend misspoke, would it be a big deal?
If a co-worker made a small mistake during a presentation, would you even think much of it?
For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
2017;12(1):e0169972.
Evidence from a probe detection paradigm.J Exp Psychopathol.
2019;74:e1316.
2022;14(12):e32687.
2015;29(4):449-67. doi:10.1177/1948550611430166
