The ‘spotlight effect’ stops people in their tracks but it doesn’t have to.
Quite often, many people get a promotion, praise, or an assignment at work while feeling imposter syndrome when the result is a bigger challenge. They feel like frauds or flukes even if their previous accomplishment led to them here. There’s a feeling of being seen and fear of being “found out.” If this sounds familiar, a leadership and behavioral expert has a tip to “turn that spotlight off yourself and turn it into a flashlight.”
Dr. Shadé Zahrai went on TikTok to advise folks that are experiencing imposter syndrome via the spotlight effect. To put it briefly, the spotlight effect is something your brain does to a person to make gross overestimations on how much people notice, judge, or recall them. They feel like they’re under a spotlight, anxious that people are watching them and will call them out. The truth, according to Zahrai and others, is that most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to notice, remember, or even care about auditing you. While that truth is a relief, this still may not be enough to offset imposter syndrome.
Zahrai continued by saying that you could flip the thought and energy of the spotlight off of your identity and aim it like a flashlight onto your problem to find a solution. The spotlight of “I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m going to be exposed” turns into “This is the issue that I’m concerned about, what do I have to do or learn to address it?” It takes “I’m a fraud” and flips it into “Why do I feel like a fraud?”
“Confidence doesn’t require you to know everything in advance,” says Zahrai. “It just requires you to trust yourself enough to stay in the room, ask the question, and figure things out as you go.”
Behavioral specialists weigh in
Other behavioral experts and therapists reached out to Upworthy to weigh in on what they would recommend to a person experiencing the spotlight effect.
“So much of anxiety is perception of how others perceive you and what they’re thinking about you,” said licensed therapist Cristina Billingsley. “Being that [the spotlight effect] is a common occurrence for people, I remind clients there’s comfort in knowing you’re not alone. Reminding ourselves that this theory has been tested and research shows that people overestimate how much people are actually thinking about or noticing them. Next time you’re spiraling about this, ask yourself ‘Yeah….and?’ Does it matter in the long run…today, tomorrow, next week? Does this person’s opinion truly matter to me? Would I judge someone or be this critical about them?”
Some experts agreed that the spotlight effect pivot that Zahrai recommended could be used to a personal advantage.
“Reframe the spotlight effect as a flashlight moment, turning the fear of failure and making mistakes into an opportunity to showcase your zone of genius so that others can learn from you,” recommended psychologist Dr. Angela Chen. “Take repeated action, as it will allow your brain to rewire the spotlight effect through exposure and extinction learning. Consistent and repeated exposure through taking steps toward what matters to you and what kind of person you strive to be allows your brain to create and strengthen new, non-threatening neural pathways.”
Other experts didn’t think that Zahrai’s flashlight pivot was an effective approach to ridding the spotlight effect at all.
“The approach of turning a spotlight into a flashlight treats the issue as attention-based instead of deep-rooted. This might work in the short-term but it doesn’t address the cause of the anxiety. Many with imposter syndrome have internalized a harsh inner critic,” said licensed psychotherapist Doriel Jacov. “If you simply redirect your attention, it doesn’t get rid of that internalization. It might offer some temporary relief, but the inner critic will find its way back to you.”
“Second, since the spotlight effect is fueled by negative self-perception, when you turn it into a flashlight, you might turn that negative perception outward. This leaves you judgmental and highly critical of others, which can have negative relational impacts. You may find yourself consciously or unconsciously devaluing others,” added Jacov.
Jacov did agree with Dr. Chen that frequent exposure could help navigate a person’s emotions to offset the impact of the spotlight effect.
“The biggest advice I have is to put yourself in situations that elicit the spotlight,” concluded Jacov. “The more you expose yourself to those feelings and that type of environment, the more you’ll be able to learn that you’re emotionally safe. You’ll learn that no one thinks of you in the way you think of yourself.”
