The spotlight effect refers to overestimating the extent to which others notice your appearance or behavior,
especially when you commit a social faux pas. Effectively, you feel as if you are suddenly standing in a
spotlight with everyone looking. In one demonstration
of this phenomenon, Gilovich, Medvec, and Savitsky (2000) asked college students to put on a Barry
Manilow T-shirt that fellow students had previously
judged to be embarrassing. The participants were then
led into a room in which other students were already
participating in an experiment. After a few minutes,
the participant was led back out of the room and was
allowed to remove the shirt. Later, each participant
was asked to estimate how many people in the room
had noticed the shirt. The individuals who were in the
room were also asked whether they noticed the shirt.
In the study, the participants significantly overestimated the actual number of people who had noticed.
a. In a similar study using a sample of n = 9 participants, the individuals who wore the shirt produced
an average estimate of M = 6.4 with SS = 162.
The average number who said they noticed was
3.1. Is the estimate from the participants significantly different from the actual number? Test the
null hypothesis that the true mean is μ = 3.1 using
a two-tailed test with α = .05.
b. Is the estimate from the participants significantly
higher than the actual number (μ = 3.1)? Use a
one-tailed test with α = .05.