I suffer from it. I named it “God” and I use it as a way to improve myself over time, despite being too socially isolated to use others’ perceptions as my motivation.

Growing up helped a lot. I never feel like everyone is staring at me for no reason anymore. If people are going to stare at me, it is because I am wearing my old-fashioned tweed 3-pieces or something.

Huh. Nothing to add regarding your question, but I’d always heard this called ‘Main Character Syndrome’. But it looks like ‘Spotlight Effect’ existed long before…

Let’s be fair with voice activated assistants, Bluetooth beacons, and mobile signals. are we not getting recorded wherever we go.

A little basic training in sneaking about helps alley this a lot, eg. working as a stagehand, competitive hide & seek, wilderness survival. Once you know how easy it is not to be noticed you realize that it’s often the default, and getting noticed is the hard part.