중학교 영어 3 (미래엔 최연희) 연계 글

Imagine walking into class with a large stain on your shirt. Taking your seat, you feel as if every pair of eyes in the room has turned toward you. You may even replay the moment in your mind not only during class but also at home that night. Psychologists call this feeling the spotlight effect. It is the belief that other people notice not only our appearance but also our actions much more than they really do.

In 2000, the psychologist Thomas Gilovich and two of his colleagues reported a simple experiment on this feeling. Each college student taking part was asked to put on a T-shirt with a large picture of a singer. Interviews had shown that most students would feel embarrassed in such a shirt. Wearing the shirt, each student walked into a room where a few other students were filling out a questionnaire. After only a moment, a researcher asked the student to wait outside. Standing in the hallway, the student then guessed how many people in the room could name the singer.

On average, the wearers guessed that 46 percent could. The researchers then asked the others whether they remembered the person on the shirt. Only 23 percent of them did. In a second experiment, students wore shirts showing famous people they liked and had chosen themselves. The wearers' average guess was again close to half, but fewer than one in ten of the others could name the person on the shirt.

Why do we make this mistake? According to the researchers, our first guess comes from our own strong feelings about the moment. However, we usually do not change it enough, so the final guess stays too high. Knowing every detail of our own embarrassment, we can find it hard to believe that others barely noticed it.

The spotlight effect appears not only when we feel embarrassed but also when we feel good about how we look. In a third study, students in group discussions thought that not only their mistakes but also their good ideas stood out more than they really did. So the next time you trip on the stairs at school, remember the students in that room. Most of the people around you may not have noticed at all.