The Spotlight Effect and Social Anxiety

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsDefinitionExamplesCausesImpactTreatmentsCoping

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Table of Contents

Definition

Examples

Causes

Impact

Treatments

Coping

Do you ever feel like all eyes are on you in ordinary social situations? This phenomenon, known as the spotlight effect, can lead toself-consciousnessand anxiety. While we might often feel like we are in the spotlight in social situations, experts have found that people actually pay far less attention to what we are doing than we might think.

This article discusses why the spotlight effect happens, some of the effects it can have, and what you can do to cope when you have this uncomfortable feeling.

What Is the Spotlight Effect?

The spotlight effect is a termsocial psychologistsuse to refer to the tendency to overestimate how much other people notice about us. In other words, we tend to think there is a spotlight on us at all times, highlighting our mistakes or flaws for all the world to see.

For people withsocial anxiety, the spotlight effect can be much worse, to the point that it affects your ability to work or feel comfortable around others.It is not uncommon to find yourself feeling embarrassed. However, for people with social anxiety, this feeling can be overemphasized.

For example, if you wake up late and go to work with disheveled hair, you may be convinced that everyone notices and secretly thinks badly of you. You may blush or try to hide from your coworkers, convinced they pity or mock you.

Research on the Spotlight Effect

In early studies on the spotlight effect, researchers had college student participants wear an embarrassing t-shirt to class and asked them to estimate how many of their peers would notice it. While 50% of the students suggested that their fellow students would notice, only about 25% actually reported noticing the shirts.

A 2007 study showed that the spotlight effect was specific to social-evaluative concerns whereas the illusion of transparency was related to more general social anxiety.

The spotlight effect may be more of a concern when you perceive that you are being evaluated or where there is pressure for others to like you.

Examples of the Spotlight Effect

You can probably think of a few occasions where you felt like everyone was watching you. Some situations where you might notice this include the following:

What Causes the Spotlight Effect?

The spotlight effect is acognitive bias—an error in thinking that affects your judgments about yourself and the world. In this particular case, it is an example of anegocentricbias. Because we have more information about our thoughts and feelings, we often tend to place too much weight on our own perspective when deciding.

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.

It is believed that the spotlight effect comes from being overly self-conscious as well as not being able to put yourself in the shoes of the other person to realize that their perspective is different from yours.

Some other factors that can play a role in the spotlight effect include:

Social anxiety also plays a role. Social anxiety is much more than just nervousness. It reflects differences in brain activity and reactions to your environment. With social anxiety, you may know that your feelings are irrational, but you can’t change how you feel.

People who have social anxiety, and therefore are more likely to experience the spotlight effect, experience excess activity in a part of the brain called theamygdala. This area of the brain plays a role in the body’sfight-or-flight response, which prepares the body to either deal with a threat or escape it.

When people are shown pictures of fearful faces, they experience a heightened fear response. Brain imaging shows that the amygdala becomes more active in response to such images, which indicates a more significant fear response.

Recap

Impact of Spotlight Effect

All people, but especially those with social anxiety, are very focused on themselves, their actions, and their appearance and believe everyone else is just as aware.When this sense is very heightened, however, people may experience feelings of social anxiety.

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.

But social anxiety and poor judgments aren’t the only ways the spotlight effect can take a toll on your life and well-being. Some other potential effects include:

RecapFeeling self-conscious and in the spotlight can take a toll on your perceptions, choices, mental health, and relationships.

Feeling self-conscious and in the spotlight can take a toll on your perceptions, choices, mental health, and relationships.

Social Anxiety Disorder

How Treatments Can Help

The spotlight effect can be debilitating if you have social anxiety, making every situation more fear-inducing and intimidating. However,symptoms of social anxiety, including the spotlight effect, can be treated with a combination of therapy and medications.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

For example, a therapist might help you recognize unhelpful thoughts causing you to experience the spotlight effect. Examples of such thoughts can include negative beliefs about your abilities and the idea that other people are judging you.

As you work to replace these thoughts, you can also develop coping skills to help you manage anxiety and distress. You can also practice exercises learned in therapy to help you manage your daily activities, giving you more confidence and fewer feelings of embarrassment.

Medications

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approvedZoloft (sertraline),Paxil (paroxetine), andEffexor XR (venlafaxine)to treat social anxiety disorder.

Other medications may also be prescribed including serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, and other anti-anxiety drugs.

Fear of Being the Center of Attention

Coping With the Spotlight Effect

Awareness of the spotlight effect can help lessen nervousness or embarrassment in social situations. If you can get to the point where you realize nobody is paying attention to you, then you will stop worrying so much about it. However, it can be much more challenging for those with social anxiety to recognize this fact and overcome fear linked to the spotlight effect.

Challenge Your Beliefs

One way to work on overcoming the spotlight effect is to test your belief that other people are noticing and evaluating you. To do this, it’s helpful to understand a concept identified through research termed the “illusion of transparency,” which asserts that people tend to think that their internal state is visible to others when it truly is not.

While it may feel as though everyone knows what you are thinking about yourself, in actuality, nobody has this ability to read your mind.

Once you can see that people really are caught up in their own situations, it will become easier to imagine that the spotlight is not shining on you and highlighting your flaws.

Pay Attention to Others

Intentionally shifting your focus to other people can help take some of your inner focus off of yourself. Starting trying to notice what others are doing more. Work on youractive listening skillsso that you can engage more fully in conversations and ask questions to learn more.

Try Role Reversal

When something makes you feel like you are in the spotlight, think about how you would respond if the same thing happened to somebody else. 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?

Once you realize that other people feel the same way about your own actions, you’ll probably start to feel more at ease and less like you are standing in front of a spotlight.

Reach Out for Help

If you find yourself grappling with nervousness or shame on a regular basis,talk with a therapistor your doctor to discuss potentialtreatment options, including talk therapy and medication. With intervention from a trained professional, you can be empowered to manage social anxiety and lead a richer life.

If you or a loved one are struggling with social anxiety disorder, contact theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helplineat1-800-662-4357for information on support and treatment facilities in your area.For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

Living With Social Anxiety Disorder

11 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Jackson B, Compton J, Thornton AL, Dimmock JA.Re-thinking anxiety: Using inoculation messages to reduce and reinterpret public speaking fears.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(1):e0169972. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169972De caso I, Poerio G, Jefferies E, Smallwood J.That’s me in the spotlight: neural basis of individual differences in self-consciousness.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017;12(9):1384-1393. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx076Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.211Brown MA, Stopa L.The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety.J Anxiety Disord. 2007;21(6):804-819. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.11.006Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.2.211Kraus J, Frick A, Fischer H, Howner K, Fredrikson M, Furmark T.Amygdala reactivity and connectivity during social and non-social aversive stimulation in social anxiety disorder.Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2018;280:56-61. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.08.012Vriends N, Bolt OC, Meral Y, Meyer AH, Bögels S, Wilhelm FH.Does self-focused attention in social anxiety depend on self-construal? Evidence from a probe detection paradigm.J Exp Psychopathol. 2019;7(1):18-30. doi:10.5127/jep.041514Mangolini VI, Andrade LH, Lotufo-neto F, Wang YP.Treatment of anxiety disorders in clinical practice: a critical overview of recent systematic evidence.Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2019;74:e1316. doi:10.6061/clinics/2019/e1316Morina N, Seidemann J, Andor T, et al.The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder in routine clinical practice.Clin Psychol Psychother. 2023;30(2):335-343. doi:10.1002/cpp.2799Alomari NA, Bedaiwi SK, Ghasib AM, et al.Social anxiety disorder: Associated conditions and therapeutic approaches.Cureus. 2022;14(12):e32687. doi:10.7759/cureus.32687Carlson EN, Oltmanns TF.The role of metaperception in personality disorders: Do people with personality problems know how others experience their personality?J Pers Disord. 2015;29(4):449-67. doi:10.1177/1948550611430166

11 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Jackson B, Compton J, Thornton AL, Dimmock JA.Re-thinking anxiety: Using inoculation messages to reduce and reinterpret public speaking fears.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(1):e0169972. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169972De caso I, Poerio G, Jefferies E, Smallwood J.That’s me in the spotlight: neural basis of individual differences in self-consciousness.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017;12(9):1384-1393. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx076Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.211Brown MA, Stopa L.The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety.J Anxiety Disord. 2007;21(6):804-819. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.11.006Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.2.211Kraus J, Frick A, Fischer H, Howner K, Fredrikson M, Furmark T.Amygdala reactivity and connectivity during social and non-social aversive stimulation in social anxiety disorder.Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2018;280:56-61. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.08.012Vriends N, Bolt OC, Meral Y, Meyer AH, Bögels S, Wilhelm FH.Does self-focused attention in social anxiety depend on self-construal? Evidence from a probe detection paradigm.J Exp Psychopathol. 2019;7(1):18-30. doi:10.5127/jep.041514Mangolini VI, Andrade LH, Lotufo-neto F, Wang YP.Treatment of anxiety disorders in clinical practice: a critical overview of recent systematic evidence.Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2019;74:e1316. doi:10.6061/clinics/2019/e1316Morina N, Seidemann J, Andor T, et al.The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder in routine clinical practice.Clin Psychol Psychother. 2023;30(2):335-343. doi:10.1002/cpp.2799Alomari NA, Bedaiwi SK, Ghasib AM, et al.Social anxiety disorder: Associated conditions and therapeutic approaches.Cureus. 2022;14(12):e32687. doi:10.7759/cureus.32687Carlson EN, Oltmanns TF.The role of metaperception in personality disorders: Do people with personality problems know how others experience their personality?J Pers Disord. 2015;29(4):449-67. doi:10.1177/1948550611430166

Jackson B, Compton J, Thornton AL, Dimmock JA.Re-thinking anxiety: Using inoculation messages to reduce and reinterpret public speaking fears.PLoS ONE. 2017;12(1):e0169972. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169972De caso I, Poerio G, Jefferies E, Smallwood J.That’s me in the spotlight: neural basis of individual differences in self-consciousness.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017;12(9):1384-1393. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx076Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.211Brown MA, Stopa L.The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety.J Anxiety Disord. 2007;21(6):804-819. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.11.006Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.2.211Kraus J, Frick A, Fischer H, Howner K, Fredrikson M, Furmark T.Amygdala reactivity and connectivity during social and non-social aversive stimulation in social anxiety disorder.Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2018;280:56-61. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.08.012Vriends N, Bolt OC, Meral Y, Meyer AH, Bögels S, Wilhelm FH.Does self-focused attention in social anxiety depend on self-construal? Evidence from a probe detection paradigm.J Exp Psychopathol. 2019;7(1):18-30. doi:10.5127/jep.041514Mangolini VI, Andrade LH, Lotufo-neto F, Wang YP.Treatment of anxiety disorders in clinical practice: a critical overview of recent systematic evidence.Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2019;74:e1316. doi:10.6061/clinics/2019/e1316Morina N, Seidemann J, Andor T, et al.The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder in routine clinical practice.Clin Psychol Psychother. 2023;30(2):335-343. doi:10.1002/cpp.2799Alomari NA, Bedaiwi SK, Ghasib AM, et al.Social anxiety disorder: Associated conditions and therapeutic approaches.Cureus. 2022;14(12):e32687. doi:10.7759/cureus.32687Carlson EN, Oltmanns TF.The role of metaperception in personality disorders: Do people with personality problems know how others experience their personality?J Pers Disord. 2015;29(4):449-67. doi:10.1177/1948550611430166

De caso I, Poerio G, Jefferies E, Smallwood J.That’s me in the spotlight: neural basis of individual differences in self-consciousness.Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2017;12(9):1384-1393. doi:10.1093/scan/nsx076

Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.211

Brown MA, Stopa L.The spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency in social anxiety.J Anxiety Disord. 2007;21(6):804-819. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.11.006

Gilovich T, Medvec VH, Savitsky K.The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000;78(2):211-222. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.78.2.211

Kraus J, Frick A, Fischer H, Howner K, Fredrikson M, Furmark T.Amygdala reactivity and connectivity during social and non-social aversive stimulation in social anxiety disorder.Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2018;280:56-61. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.08.012

Vriends N, Bolt OC, Meral Y, Meyer AH, Bögels S, Wilhelm FH.Does self-focused attention in social anxiety depend on self-construal? Evidence from a probe detection paradigm.J Exp Psychopathol. 2019;7(1):18-30. doi:10.5127/jep.041514

Mangolini VI, Andrade LH, Lotufo-neto F, Wang YP.Treatment of anxiety disorders in clinical practice: a critical overview of recent systematic evidence.Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2019;74:e1316. doi:10.6061/clinics/2019/e1316

Morina N, Seidemann J, Andor T, et al.The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder in routine clinical practice.Clin Psychol Psychother. 2023;30(2):335-343. doi:10.1002/cpp.2799

Alomari NA, Bedaiwi SK, Ghasib AM, et al.Social anxiety disorder: Associated conditions and therapeutic approaches.Cureus. 2022;14(12):e32687. doi:10.7759/cureus.32687

Carlson EN, Oltmanns TF.The role of metaperception in personality disorders: Do people with personality problems know how others experience their personality?J Pers Disord. 2015;29(4):449-67. doi:10.1177/1948550611430166

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What Is the Spotlight Effect?#

Research on the Spotlight Effect#

Examples of the Spotlight Effect#

What Causes the Spotlight Effect?#

Brain Differences and Social Anxiety#

Recap#

Impact of Spotlight Effect#

How Treatments Can Help#

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy#

Medications#

Coping With the Spotlight Effect#

Challenge Your Beliefs#

Pay Attention to Others#

Try Role Reversal#

Reach Out for Help#