title: The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one's own actions and appearance.
abstract: This research provides evidence that people overestimate the extent to which their actions and appearance are noted by others, a phenomenon dubbed the spotlight effect. In Studies 1 and 2, participants who were asked to don a T-shirt depicting either a flattering or potentially embarrassing image overestimated the number of observers who would be able to recall what was pictured on the shirt. In Study 3, participants in a group discussion overestimated how prominent their positive and negative utterances were to their fellow discussants. Studies 4 and 5 provide evidence supporting an anchoring-and-adjustment interpretation of the spotlight effect. In particular, people appear to anchor on their own rich phenomenological experience and then adjust--insufficiently--to take into account the perspective of others. The discussion focuses on the manifestations and implications of the spotlight effect across a host of everyday social phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. tdg1@cornell.edu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gilovich
authors.forename: V H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Medvec
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Savitsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception