Margen
In 2000, Thomas Gilovich sent students into a crowded classroom wearing a T-shirt with Barry Manilow's face on it — a singer they found mortifying. Then he asked: how many people do you think noticed? They guessed about half. The real figure was roughly half of that.
It's the spotlight effect: we systematically overestimate how much other people are watching us. Since you're the absolute star of your own movie, you assume you also appear in everyone else's. You don't — they're busy starring in theirs.
The same team tested it with bad hair days, stumbles and slips of the tongue in public speaking: audiences remember far less than you fear.
The stain on your shirt that ruined your lunch, that clumsy comment in the meeting... nobody is keeping them in memory. Only you, on a loop.