When looking through the topics discussed this week, there was one concept in particular that stuck with me, The Spotlight Effect. It is the reason I feel awkward in social situations and why I generally avoid big parties.
The Spotlight Effect is the tendency for people to overestimate how much others are watching and noticing them, the good and the bad (Gilovich & Savitsky, 1999). In other words, when a hypothetical person is walking down the street and almost trips, they would automatically feel as if everyone saw that minor slip-up and are laughing at them. On the flipside, that hypothetical person would also automatically expect people to pay particular notice when something good happens to them, like they answer a question right in class or have a good hair day. The truth is, people aren’t really paying that much attention to us, though we feel as if the whole world is watching.
A personal example is my history with parties, which I try to avoid most of the time. Due to The Spotlight Effect or my general paranoia, I feel almost suffocated at parties due to the belief that everyone is watching me. No matter how much I tell myself that these people are going to the party to have fun and not watch me awkwardly stand in the corner, I still feel as if everyone notices when I am standing alone. That when I almost slip because the floor is wet with beer, they are all laughing to themselves. And that when I accidently spill a drink on my shirt, the stain might as well glow in the dark because everyone is sure to notice. Of course this doesn’t hold true for where parties I consume alcohol, which seems to cancel out The Spotlight Effect. Similar to when negative things happen, I also expect people around me to pay special attention when good things are happening. Like when I feel I’m wear a particularly nice looking outfit, I expect people to be beside themselves over how cute it is.
The Spotlight Effect is a difficult thing to overcome. I’ve been aware of this concept for some years now and I still fall prey to it. Though it’s not the most urgent matter to overcome, being aware that people aren’t really paying much attention to you could help a person function more comfortably in a big crowd.
Gilovich, T., & Savitsky, K. (1999). The Spotlight effect and the illusion of transparency: Egocentric assessments of how we are seen by others. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(6), 165-168.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The One About My Roommate, the Missed Question, and Counterfactual Thinking
When thinking about writing this blog, I kept hitting a brick wall. With concepts like priming and attribution theories to discuss, I could think of a million little example, but nothing I felt I could expand on. I almost decided to just skip this week’s blog, until my roommate came home with a story to tell.
Last week, my roommate became sick, which is bad enough. Unfortunately for her, she also had her first test in an important class that week. She contemplated not going, but decided she was well enough to go and she didn’t want to stress about the test anymore. Walking into our apartment today, I was met with my roommate, who told me they received their graded tests today. After asking her how she did, my roommate got a sad look on her face and said she would have had a perfect score, but she had accidently skipped one of the short essay questions.
After trying to reassure her that she could bounce back from this and do better on future tests, my roommate lamented that what bothered her most was that she knew the question. That she could have easily gotten a perfect score, but for whatever reason, perhaps due to her being sick, she had glazed over that one question. She went on to say she wouldn’t be so mad at herself if she didn’t actually know the question because then she could tell herself it didn’t matter that she had skipped the question because she didn’t know it anyway. She then fumed about the different scenarios that could have gotten her a better score. Maybe if she had looked over the test one more time. Maybe if she had waited till she had felt better to take the test, she would have been more attentive. The list goes on. Sadly for my roommate, no matter how many scenarios she thinks up, she still skipped the question.
What my roommate is suffering from is Counterfactual Thinking, which is part of a bigger concept, Cognitive Heuristics. Specifically, Cognitive Heuristics are information-processing tools that are usually helpful in allowing us to quickly and efficiently think about the world around us, but can lead us astray (Gilovich, Grifin, & Kahneman, 2002; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Nisbett & Ross, 1980). There are several different heuristic tools we use, but the one I’m focusing on in this blog is Counterfactual Thinking, which is the inclination of a person to think of the different possible outcomes, that did not occur, of an event (Kahneman & Miller, 1986). Furthermore, research has shown that the alternative outcomes we come up with affect how we feel about the event (Roese, 1997; Roese & Olson, 1995). In other words, if we imagine more positive alternates, we feel disappointed or frustrated with the actual outcome, but if we imagine negative outcomes, we usually feel more relieved or satisfied with the actual outcome. Moreover, certain situations make it easier to conjure up other possible outcomes, such as situations where we are on the verge of a better or worse outcome or just below a cutoff point (Medvec & Savitsky, 1997).
So for my roommate, the fact the she was so close to a perfect score made the situation even worse and much easier to think of different outcomes. If she had made a worse score, it might have made it easier for her to let it go and just tell herself to study and focus more next time. Furthermore, her feelings of anger and disappointment are explained by the fact that she was focusing on more positive alternatives, such as answering the last question, than on negative outcomes, such as missing more than just the one question. Had she thought of all the worse alternative outcomes, she might have felt better about the grade she received.
Gilovich, T., Grifin, D., & Kahneman, D. (Eds.). (2002) Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kahneman, D., & Miller, D.T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93, 136-153.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Medvec, V.H., & Savitsky, K. (1997). When doing better means feeling worse: The effects of categorical cutoff points on counterfactual thinking and satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1284-1296.
Nisbett, R.E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inferences: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Roese, N.J. (1997). Counterfactual thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 133-148.
Roese, N.J., & Olson, J.M. (Eds.). (1995). What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Last week, my roommate became sick, which is bad enough. Unfortunately for her, she also had her first test in an important class that week. She contemplated not going, but decided she was well enough to go and she didn’t want to stress about the test anymore. Walking into our apartment today, I was met with my roommate, who told me they received their graded tests today. After asking her how she did, my roommate got a sad look on her face and said she would have had a perfect score, but she had accidently skipped one of the short essay questions.
After trying to reassure her that she could bounce back from this and do better on future tests, my roommate lamented that what bothered her most was that she knew the question. That she could have easily gotten a perfect score, but for whatever reason, perhaps due to her being sick, she had glazed over that one question. She went on to say she wouldn’t be so mad at herself if she didn’t actually know the question because then she could tell herself it didn’t matter that she had skipped the question because she didn’t know it anyway. She then fumed about the different scenarios that could have gotten her a better score. Maybe if she had looked over the test one more time. Maybe if she had waited till she had felt better to take the test, she would have been more attentive. The list goes on. Sadly for my roommate, no matter how many scenarios she thinks up, she still skipped the question.
What my roommate is suffering from is Counterfactual Thinking, which is part of a bigger concept, Cognitive Heuristics. Specifically, Cognitive Heuristics are information-processing tools that are usually helpful in allowing us to quickly and efficiently think about the world around us, but can lead us astray (Gilovich, Grifin, & Kahneman, 2002; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Nisbett & Ross, 1980). There are several different heuristic tools we use, but the one I’m focusing on in this blog is Counterfactual Thinking, which is the inclination of a person to think of the different possible outcomes, that did not occur, of an event (Kahneman & Miller, 1986). Furthermore, research has shown that the alternative outcomes we come up with affect how we feel about the event (Roese, 1997; Roese & Olson, 1995). In other words, if we imagine more positive alternates, we feel disappointed or frustrated with the actual outcome, but if we imagine negative outcomes, we usually feel more relieved or satisfied with the actual outcome. Moreover, certain situations make it easier to conjure up other possible outcomes, such as situations where we are on the verge of a better or worse outcome or just below a cutoff point (Medvec & Savitsky, 1997).
So for my roommate, the fact the she was so close to a perfect score made the situation even worse and much easier to think of different outcomes. If she had made a worse score, it might have made it easier for her to let it go and just tell herself to study and focus more next time. Furthermore, her feelings of anger and disappointment are explained by the fact that she was focusing on more positive alternatives, such as answering the last question, than on negative outcomes, such as missing more than just the one question. Had she thought of all the worse alternative outcomes, she might have felt better about the grade she received.
Gilovich, T., Grifin, D., & Kahneman, D. (Eds.). (2002) Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kahneman, D., & Miller, D.T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93, 136-153.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Medvec, V.H., & Savitsky, K. (1997). When doing better means feeling worse: The effects of categorical cutoff points on counterfactual thinking and satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1284-1296.
Nisbett, R.E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inferences: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Roese, N.J. (1997). Counterfactual thinking. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 133-148.
Roese, N.J., & Olson, J.M. (Eds.). (1995). What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The One About My Friend, the Musician, and First Impressions
When I began thinking about personal experiences relating to first impressions, what immediately popped into my head had nothing to do with me and everything to do with my best friend and an unfortunately absent musician. It is an incident that made me laugh then because of how wrong of an impression my best friend got from the musician, whom I knew from a psychology class. It makes me laugh even more so know because it is a perfect example of how powerful first impressions can be, and of how concepts like belief perseverance and primacy effect play out in real life.
The primacy effect being the idea that people greatly use the information they are given early on when forming an impression of a person, and largely ignore later information, even if it is important (Asch, 1946). Furthermore, belief perseverance is the, arguably stubborn, refusal to let go of current beliefs, even if those beliefs have been negated (Anderson, Lepper, & Ross, 1980).
Back to my best friend and the no-show musician, the story goes that my best friend was trying to set up a fundraising concert on campus for one of her favorite organizations. The musician she contacted was a well known one on campus, so my friend was hoping the popular musician would bring a big crowd to the concert. Email conversations took place, and it looked like it was all going to work out. Come to the first concert meeting, the musician never shows up and later emails that they were too busy to come to the meeting. They subsequently miss every other meeting my friend holds, so my friend scratches the musicians name off the performance list and begins forming a bad impression of the busy musician. Jump to the day before the concert, my friend receives an email from the musician asking when and where they would be performing, which sends my friend over the edge. She writes a sickeningly sweet email to the musician about since they never showed up to any of the meetings, she would not be needing their services at the concert. After that exchange, my friend permanently writes the musician off as being every negative quality she can think of, and never looks back.
The next semester, the musician was in one of my classes, and I was able to learn more about them. Though I tried time and time again to change my friend's mind about the musician, she wouldn't budge. No matter how many good things I had to say about the musician, my friend would find something bad to say. I would talk about how smart the musician was in class, and my friend would just roll her eyes.
This story illustrates the concepts primacy effects and belief perseverance. That is, my friend based her impression of the musician on the first few bits of information she received about the musician, which was they could be somewhat unreliable and presumptuous, and largely ignored any later information she learned (primacy effect). Furthermore, she refused to change her belief that the musician was a rude person even when she was given information about the musician being a nice and smart person (belief perseverance).
Sadly, the musician no longer goes to our university, so my friend will never have the chance to personally get to know the musician better and maybe change her opinion on them. Although, I doubt she would take the opportunity even if it was available.
Anderson, C. A., Lepper, M. R, & Ross, L. (1980). The perseverance of social theories: The role of explanation in the persistence of discredited information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1037-1049.
Asch, S.E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41(3), 258-290.
The primacy effect being the idea that people greatly use the information they are given early on when forming an impression of a person, and largely ignore later information, even if it is important (Asch, 1946). Furthermore, belief perseverance is the, arguably stubborn, refusal to let go of current beliefs, even if those beliefs have been negated (Anderson, Lepper, & Ross, 1980).
Back to my best friend and the no-show musician, the story goes that my best friend was trying to set up a fundraising concert on campus for one of her favorite organizations. The musician she contacted was a well known one on campus, so my friend was hoping the popular musician would bring a big crowd to the concert. Email conversations took place, and it looked like it was all going to work out. Come to the first concert meeting, the musician never shows up and later emails that they were too busy to come to the meeting. They subsequently miss every other meeting my friend holds, so my friend scratches the musicians name off the performance list and begins forming a bad impression of the busy musician. Jump to the day before the concert, my friend receives an email from the musician asking when and where they would be performing, which sends my friend over the edge. She writes a sickeningly sweet email to the musician about since they never showed up to any of the meetings, she would not be needing their services at the concert. After that exchange, my friend permanently writes the musician off as being every negative quality she can think of, and never looks back.
The next semester, the musician was in one of my classes, and I was able to learn more about them. Though I tried time and time again to change my friend's mind about the musician, she wouldn't budge. No matter how many good things I had to say about the musician, my friend would find something bad to say. I would talk about how smart the musician was in class, and my friend would just roll her eyes.
This story illustrates the concepts primacy effects and belief perseverance. That is, my friend based her impression of the musician on the first few bits of information she received about the musician, which was they could be somewhat unreliable and presumptuous, and largely ignored any later information she learned (primacy effect). Furthermore, she refused to change her belief that the musician was a rude person even when she was given information about the musician being a nice and smart person (belief perseverance).
Sadly, the musician no longer goes to our university, so my friend will never have the chance to personally get to know the musician better and maybe change her opinion on them. Although, I doubt she would take the opportunity even if it was available.
Anderson, C. A., Lepper, M. R, & Ross, L. (1980). The perseverance of social theories: The role of explanation in the persistence of discredited information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1037-1049.
Asch, S.E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41(3), 258-290.
Monday, January 11, 2010
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