All Eyes On You...But Not Really. A guest post by Nicholas Imlach.

          While talking about spotlight effect, illusion transparency, and the better than average effect this week in class, I was wondering if knowing would change anything. The spotlight effect is essentially when people think others are paying more attention to them than they actually are. When someone is having a bad hair day, for example, they think everyone notices, but in actuality only a few will notice. The Illusion of transparency is when people think others can tell what they’re thinking. An example of this would be you and your friend looking at each other after seeing something and saying “are you thinking what I’m thinking” and you both thought something completely different. The better than average effect is assuming that you are better than the average person on most things. While learning about these different effects, a few questions arose.

            Would knowing change anything? Now that I am aware that people don’t pay that much attention, I may not be as concerned about saying something potentially stupid in class, or not as worried if I have a bad hair day. At least I would like to think I wouldn’t be as concerned. Now that I know people in general miss things, I wonder if I will be more attentive and try to spot more things. Another question that arose is the difference between people you run into on a daily basis compared to good friends. Are people more likely to see small changes in friends before colleagues? Also what if someone has feelings for someone else, are they more likely to notice the changes? Or is it people in general just can’t notice a lot while going about their average day?

            The illusion of transparency brought up some questions also. In class we talked about lying and how people can’t really tell. My question is, “is it that we can’t tell or do we not want to tell?” When is the last time someone asked you something looking for a compliment (hair style change) and you said it was awful? Most people will tell a white lie and keep their friend or significant other happy. To reiterate the question, when it comes to small lies for what most people see as the greater good, is it that we can’t tell the difference or do we not want to tell the difference?

                Finally the better than average effect surprised me. I honestly thought more people would say they were better than average. I thought most of the categories in class would have 85% and above. People don’t want to be in the bottom of most categories. I wonder if people switch, when they realize they are in the bottom 50% of a category, to “at least I’m not the worst.” In order to salvage some part of their self-esteem I imagine people eventually use that strategy. I have always enjoyed learning about human behavior, this class shined a light on some information that got me thinking about many implications, and I believe it comes down to knowing. Now that I know, I will attempt to be more attentive in spotting inconsistencies