The illusion of transparency is a cognitive bias that causes people to believe that their thoughts and emotions are more apparent to others than is actually the case. For example, the illusion of transparency can cause people who feel nervous about public speaking to overestimate the degree to which their nervousness is noticed by the audience.

Because the illusion of transparency has a strong effect on people in a wide range of situations, learning how to account for it is highly beneficial. As such, in the following article you will learn more about the illusion of transparency, understand why people experience it, and see how you can account for it, both when it comes to your own thinking, as well as when it comes to other people’s thought process.

Examples of the illusion of transparency

As we saw above, the illusion of transparency can affect people when they give a public presentation, and cause them to assume that their nervousness is more obvious to others than is actually the case.

In addition to this, the illusion of transparency can also influence people’s thinking in various other scenarios. For example, a set of experiments on the topic found several instances where the illusion of transparency affects people in everyday situations:

Liars significantly overestimate how well other people are able to detect their lies.

People who are feeling emotional distress assume that their distress is more obvious to others than it is in reality.

People eating something that tastes bad assume that their disgust is more apparent to observers than it actually is.

Why people experience the illusion of transparency

People experience the illusion of transparency because they have a natural egocentric bias, which causes them to rely too heavily on their own perspective when trying to consider the perspective of others.

Essentially, because you spend the vast majority of your time considering your thoughts and actions from your own perspective, it’s hard for you to adjust from the anchor of your own point of view when you attempt to imagine how others see you. This means that even though other people don’t have as much insight into your thought process and mental state as you do, and even though you rationally know that they don’t, it’s difficult for you to remember this when you intuitively estimate what others know about you.

As such, we tend to naturally assume that other people can easily tell what we think and how we feel, because we know what we think and how we feel, and because it’s difficult for us to remember that other people don’t have as much insight into our mental state as we do.

How to reduce the illusion of transparency

Be aware of the bias

The simplest thing you can do in order to reduce the impact that the illusion of transparency has on you, is to simply be aware of it.

For example, in one study on the topic, researchers examined how telling people about the illusion of transparency influenced their ability to give a public talk.

Accordingly, before giving their talk, some of the participants in the study were told that the audience likely won’t be able to pick up on their anxiety and nervousness as much as they would expect. They were told that this occurs because when we experience powerful emotions, we tend to assume that others will be able to notice them, but that, in reality, observers aren’t as good at noticing these things as we think they are.

The simple act of informing people of what the illusion of transparency is and how it affects them had a significant impact on people’s public speaking, and speakers who were informed of the illusion of transparency before giving a talk appeared more composed and gave a better talk than speakers who were not told about it.

Overall, this demonstrates how simply being aware of the illusion of transparency can help you mitigate its influence, and become more confident. Though the study in the above example showed this in the context of public speaking, it’s highly likely that the benefits of making people aware of the illusion of transparency translate to other domains as well.

This approach to debiasing the illusion of transparency is especially useful, since it’s so easy to implement. As such, if you find yourself in a situation where you are feeling nervous and in need of a confidence boost, take a moment to relax, and try to remember that the illusion of transparency is likely making you more anxious than you need to be.

Use self-distancing techniques

In addition to simply being aware of the illusion of transparency, you can further reduce its influence on you by using self-distancing techniques, which can help you reduce the egocentric bias that promotes the illusion of transparency in the first place.

Doing this entails creating psychological self-distance when you’re trying to estimate how well other people can read you. You can create this distance by trying to vividly imagine how you are observed by others, from a perspective that is different than your own.

Such perspective can be anything that isn’t a first-person perspective, meaning that you can either try to view yourself directly from someone else’s perspective, or you can try to see yourself from a generalized external perspective. The more you commit to trying to see things from a new perspective, the more clearly you will be able to think about yourself in an unbiased manner, so try to visualize this external perspective as best as you can.

Get feedback from others

Another thing you can do to help yourself internalize the way that the illusion of transparency affects you, is to ask for feedback from people that you trust.

Specifically, you can ask them how well they were able to detect your thoughts and emotions in specific cases that you are wondering about, such as during a public presentation. Since you will usually overestimate their ability to “read” your internal state during such times, getting actual feedback can help you see just how much the illusion of transparency affects you, which will help you account for it better.

Use general debiasing techniques

Beyond the techniques outlined above, there are other debiasing techniques that you can use in order to mitigate the illusion of transparency. These techniques include, for example, slowing down your reasoning process and creating optimal conditions for rational thinking.

Read the guide to debiasing to learn more about these techniques, and about how using them can help you mitigate various cognitive biases, including the illusion of transparency.

Accounting for the illusion of transparency

Now that you are familiar with the illusion of transparency and understand how and why it affects people, you can account for it in your own thought process, as well as in the thought process of others. Below are a few examples of specific benefits that accounting for the illusion of transparency can have in various situations.

Increased confidence during social activities

As we saw above, simply being aware of the illusion of transparency can allow you to deliver speeches more confidently.

However, the benefits of accounting for this cognitive bias aren’t limited just to public speaking. Rather, understanding that other people can’t always tell if you’re feeling nervous or anxious can help you feel more confident and less self-conscious in general, regardless of the activity that you engage in, as long as other people are involved.

Hiding lies and identifying liars

As we saw earlier, because of the illusion of transparency, liars often assume that the person they are lying to can tell that they’re lying, even when they can’t. You can take advantage of this phenomenon in two ways:

If you are the one lying, you can remember that you are probably overestimating how obvious your lies are to the person that you are lying to, which could help you relax and lie more effectively.

Conversely, if you suspect that someone is lying to you but you aren’t sure, you can remember that they probably feel that their lie is more obvious to you than it really is, and use this to pressure them and get them to reveal the truth.

Better negotiation skills

In negotiations, the illusion of transparency causes people to believe that their motives and intentions are more transparent to the other negotiators than they actually are. Similarly to lying, there are two main ways in which you can take advantage of this phenomenon:

Understanding that you are probably overestimating how obvious your thoughts are to the person you are negotiating with can help you relax and maintain your position more confidently.

Conversely, knowing that the other person is probably overestimating how well you can read them can help you pressure them, and will therefore give you an advantage in the negotiation process.

Better communication in relationships

The insights on the effect of the illusion of transparency in negotiations also have important implications for communication in relationships. This is because in informal negotiations, such as picking a place to eat or deciding whether to pursue a romantic relationship, it’s possible that the other person isn’t as aware of your preferences as you think they are.

This means that the person you are with often can’t tell what you actually want unless you express it directly, even if you’re sure that they can. Because of this, you should take the following things into consideration:

Don’t always assume that other people can tell what you want based on implicit hints. If you’re not sure that the other person knows what you want, then express what you want explicitly, or use hints that are less subtle.

If you’re not sure that the other person knows what you want, then express what you want explicitly, or use hints that are less subtle. Understand that other people may think that they are being obvious about what they want, when in fact they are using overly subtle hints. If you think that this may be the case, then either ask them explicitly what they want, or try to account for this subtlety when interpreting their actions.

If you think that this may be the case, then either ask them explicitly what they want, or try to account for this subtlety when interpreting their actions. When each person in a negotiation assumes that they are sharing more than the other people involved (because they think that everyone else can easily read their intentions), they may end up closing up if they feel that the situation isn’t fair. This can lead to a problematic downward spiral, where everyone keeps holding back more and more. Recognize situations where this occurs, and try to solve them by addressing the problem openly.

Note that these tips on how to account for the illusion of transparency are relevant for all types of relationships, ranging from those in your personal life to those in your workplace.

The role of the illusion of transparency in general

Overall, people can be influenced by the illusion of transparency in a wide variety of situations where people are engaging with other people in some way. Essentially, this cognitive bias plays a role each time someone assumes that their emotional state is more obvious to others than it really is.

Remembering this, and not automatically assuming that other people can know what you think or how you feel, can help you become more confident, and can help you communicate more effectively with others. Furthermore, understanding that other people may also be influenced by this cognitive bias can help you avoid many common miscommunication issues, and can give you leverage in certain situations.

Summary and conclusions