Focus effect (spotlight effect) means that when people observe themselves, they will overestimate their own prominence, regard themselves as the center of a certain situation, and overestimate the attention others pay to them.
In the study, Gilovich et al. (2000) asked Cornell University students to wear a certain brand of T-shirts, walk into a room with other students, and asked these students to judge how many people would pay attention. to myself. It was found that the student wearing the T-shirt guessed that about half of his classmates would notice his T-shirt, but only 23% actually noticed him.
Corresponding to the focus effect is the illusion of transparency, that is, the illusion that people think that their hidden emotions will be discovered by others once they are exposed. In fact, others may not be able to see it at all. Savisky and Glovioh (2003) found that people always overestimate the extent to which their inner state is exposed. For example, a liar thinks that others will notice that he is deceiving others. If you drink a bad drink, you will think that others will notice. Get to the point where you hate the drink. When many people give presentations in public, they think they look nervous and anxious, and assume that others will notice this as well.
But in fact, many times, we pay too much attention to ourselves and think that others will pay so much attention to us. This is a kind of self-focus effect at work. I always feel that I am the focus of people's attention and my every move is monitored.
The concern for self runs through the whole process of human beings understanding themselves. It can be said that from the day human beings were born, we have been thinking about ourselves. It is important to know yourself, but it is also difficult to know yourself accurately. The "self" we think of is not necessarily the "real self".
