Shared Reality: Experiencing Commonality with others' Inner States about the World

Abstract

Humans have a fundamental need to experience a shared reality with others. We present a new conceptualization of shared reality based on four conditions. We posit (a) that shared reality involves a (subjectively perceived) commonality of individuals' inner states (not just observable behaviors); (b) that shared reality is about some target referent; (c) that for a shared reality to occur, the commonality of inner states must be appropriately motivated; and (d) that shared reality involves the experience of a successful connection to other people's inner states. In reviewing relevant evidence, we emphasize research on the saying-is-believing effect, which illustrates the creation of shared reality in interpersonal communication. We discuss why shared reality provides a better explanation of the findings from saying-is-believing studies than do other formulations. Finally, we examine relations between our conceptualization of shared reality and related constructs (including empathy, perspective taking, theory of mind, common ground, embodied synchrony, and socially distributed knowledge) and indicate how our approach may promote a comprehensive and differentiated understanding of social-sharing phenomena.

Toward a Science of Silence

“…This silence, on Mary's part, could be because she wants to follow the rules of conversation, such as, keep to the topic at hand (Grice, 1975;Sperber & Wilson, 1986). Alternatively, Mary could be audience tuning, avoiding recollecting details that would upset her mother (Echterhoff, Higgins, & Levine, 2009). Her silence could also occur because of collaborative inhibition.…”

“…In some, but not all, instances, such audience tuning takes place intentionally. Echterhoff, Higgins, and their colleagues have realized this intentional tuning experimentally by paying participants to shape what they say to their audience's attitude (see Echterhoff et al, 2009, for other instances in which tuning may be intentional). Although these researchers do not explicitly probe for the recollective content of the speaker, it seems reasonable to assume that, when tuning for pay, the silenced memory may often be covertly remembered.…”

“…At present, no systematic research has been done. Work on audience tuning suggests that when tuning is voluntary, it may not subsequently bias a speaker's memory (see Echterhoff, Higgins, & Levine, 2009). For instance, no memory bias is found when participants are paid to tune.…”

When two is too many: Collaborative encoding impairs memory

“…Yet we know very little about how collaboration during encoding affects memory. Historically, cognitive research on memory has focused on individuals working in isolation, and group memory has been studied largely within the domains of sociology, social psychology, and anthropology (see, e.g., Echterhoff, Higgins, & Levine, 2009;Halbwachs, 1950Halbwachs, /1980Hirst & Manier, 2008;Wegner, 1987;Wertsch, 2002). Recent cognitive research has begun to examine how collaboration affects memory (Barnier & Sutton, 2008;Harris, Paterson, & Kemp, 2008;Weldon, 2001); however, this effort has been directed mainly at understanding collaborative retrieval.…”

The Effects of Communicative Source and Dynamics on the Maintenance and Accessibility of Longer‐term Memories: Applications to Sexual Abuse and Its Public Disclosure

“…And, as with overt remembering, this selectivity is audience-directed (e.g., Echterhoff, Higgins, & Levine, 2009;Tversky & Marsh, 2000). In some instances, the audience might be the rememberer himself or herself, but in other instances, it may be someone else.…”