The Spotlight Effect

spotlight effect n. The tendency to believe that other people are paying closer attention to one's appearance and behavior than they really are.

In Social Cognitive Psychology we learned about an experiment done to test different aspects of this phenomenon: participants wore a t-shirt depicting either a flattering or embarassing image and then had to estimate how many people noticed them and could remember what they were wearing. The results? People always overestimated.

Here's the truly interesting part. They did tests in advance to determine whose picture qualified as embarassing and whose picture would be flattering.

Flattering t-shirts depicted portraits of: Bob Marley, Jerry Seinfeld or Martin Luther King Jr.
Embarassing shirts depicted pictures of: Barry Manilow

Now he may not be the coolest guy, but you can wear all the Barry Manilow t-shirts you want and fewer people than you think will notice. Cool!