Watch
Spotlight effect 1:01
A 61-second explainer of Spotlight effect, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Spotlight effect demo
What this video covers
The spotlight effect is our tendency to think other people notice us - our mistakes, our appearance, our small slip-ups - far more than they actually do. Because we're the centre of our own attention, we badly overestimate how much of a spotlight is really on us, when most people are too busy with their own concerns to notice.
You guessed a fairly high number noticed the flaw - and the real figure was much lower, because everyone else was absorbed in their own thing. That gap is the spotlight effect. It's worth remembering twice over: your users feel it too (so soften visible mistakes), and you feel it about your own work (so don't burn hours on a blemish nobody will see).
