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emotion
You overestimate how clearly others see your inner emotions.
In a 1998 study, people consistently predicted their anxiety would be obvious to observers, even when it remained invisible.
Participants gave public speeches and then estimated how much of their nervousness was apparent to the audience. Observers detected significantly less anxiety than the speakers assumed. You overestimate the visibility of your internal states because you lack the objective perspective of the onlooker.
You are usually more composed than you feel.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Gilovich et al., 1998, The Illusion of Transparency
- What the check found
- The claim correctly identifies the 1998 Gilovich, Savitsky, and Medvec study which established the 'illusion of transparency'—the tendency for people to overestimate how much their internal states are visible to others.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.