General Topic of the Article

General topic of the article

The phenomenon of having a ‘bad hair day’ is one that most people are familiar with. However, it is interesting to denote that this worry does not come from a fear of having rogue, frizzy hair, but that people will actually notice. This notion is labelled the spotlight effect. When we are acutely aware of our own appearance and actions, but have trouble realizing other people might not be as focused on us. (Psychologytoday.com, 2014).

Main contribution of the research

The research presented by Gilovich, Medvec, and Savitsky provides further evidence that people tend to believe that they stand out in the eyes of others, both positively and negatively, than they actually do.

Critical points

Despite a few criticisms, Gilovich, Medvec, and Savitsky paper still has a lot of value and provides further evidence towards the ‘spotlight effect’. The conclusion was particularly interesting, drawing upon real-life examples, which directly tie in with the evidence they found. For example smokers underestimate how invasive and troubling their habit is to others because having engaged in the habit so often, they often partake of it mindlessly. This allows readers to draw parallels with study 5 and makes the research relatable and valid. Although the conclusion was very interesting, the study as a whole did seem very repetitive and dragging. The paper was written on assumption that the spotlight effect does exist, and the studies were based around providing evidence for this. Perhaps this may have led to a bias and there may have been other explanations for the overestimating that were not explored.

The topic of the ‘spotlight effect’ nevertheless, remains a complex one, in which most people encounter everyday.