How shared reality is created in interpersonal communication

Echterhoff, Gerald; Schmalbach, Bjarne

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.12.005

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Humans are motivated to create shared realities with other (Echterhoff et al, 2009a; Echterhoff and Higgins, 2017; Higgins, 2019), often through interpersonal communication (Echterhoff and Schmalbach, 2018). For example, when people meet a new employee at their workplace, they tend to form their impressions of the newcomer jointly with their colleagues, and they feel more confident in their impressions when others agree.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T

2019

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Humans are highly motivated to achieve shared reality – common inner states (i.e., judgments, opinions, attitudes) with others about a target object. Scholarly interest in the phenomenon has been rapidly growing over the last decade, culminating in the development of a five-item self-report scale for Shared Reality about a Target (SR-T; Schmalbach, Rossignac-Milon, Keller, Higgins, and Echterhoff, unpublished). The present study aims to validate the German version of the scale. Individuals can establish shared reality either by receiving social verification (i.e., agreement or confirmation from an interaction partner) or by aligning their inner state with that of their partner. To increase the scope of the present validation, we implemented both pathways of shared-reality creation in three studies ( N = 522). Study 1 employed a social judgment task, in which participants assessed ambiguous social situations and received confirming (vs. disconfirming) feedback from their partner. Studies 2 and 3 build on the saying-is-believing paradigm, in which participants align their own evaluation of the target with their partner’s judgment. Based on an evaluatively ambiguous description, participants communicated about a target person and later recalled information about the target (Study 2). To further generalize the findings, message production was omitted from the paradigm in Study 3. Overall, the five-item model of the SR-T evinced good fit and reliability. In Study 1, the SR-T reflected experimentally induced differences in commonality of judgments– even when controlling for several related state measures, such as Inclusion of Other in the Self and Need Threat. In Studies 2 and 3, the SR-T predicted participants’ evaluative recall bias, which is an established, indirect index of communicators’ shared-reality creation. This effect was stronger when participants overtly communicated with their study partner, but it still emerged without overt communication. Across all studies, correlations with related constructs support the convergent validity of the SR-T. In sum, we recommend the use of the SR-T in research on interpersonal processes and communication.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T

2019

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“…Social interactions are a key source of well-being (Kushlev et al, 2018;Lucas et al, 2008;Mueller et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2019), and this appears to hold quite universally. However, the way in which we engage in social interactions and the antecedents that drive us to engage in (specific) social interactions or not appear much less universal and highlight differences on both the individual and interpersonal level in social interaction behavior (see Back 2021;Echterhoff & Schmalbach 2018;Hopwood 2018;Sadler et al 2011, for overviews). Conceptual models on the development of social relationships emphasize the key role of successive social interactions (Altman & Taylor, 1973;Back et al, 2011;Fehr, 2008;Knapp et al, 2014): People get to know each other and initiate and build social relationships through the flow of shared social interactions over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovering trends of social interaction behavior over time: An introduction to relational event modeling

et al. 2022

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Real-life social interactions occur in continuous time and are driven by complex mechanisms. Each interaction is not only affected by the characteristics of individuals or the environmental context but also by the history of interactions. The relational event framework provides a flexible approach to studying the mechanisms that drive how a sequence of social interactions evolves over time. This paper presents an introduction of this new statistical framework and two of its extensions for psychological researchers. The relational event framework is illustrated with an exemplary study on social interactions between freshmen students at the start of their new studies. We show how the framework can be used to study: (a) which predictors are important drivers of social interactions between freshmen students who start interacting at zero acquaintance; (b) how the effects of predictors change over time as acquaintance increases; and (c) the dynamics between the different settings in which students interact. Findings show that patterns of interaction developed early in the freshmen student network and remained relatively stable over time. Furthermore, clusters of interacting students formed quickly, and predominantly within a specific setting for interaction. Extraversion predicted rates of social interaction, and this effect was particularly pronounced on the weekends. These results illustrate how the relational event framework and its extensions can lead to new insights on social interactions and how they are affected both by the interacting individuals and the dynamic social environment.

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“…For obese customers, health goals can be doctor-driven or individual-specific, such as muscle gain or fat loss goals, target weight goals and goals relating to mind and body. Studies have revealed that goal disclosure is driven by situational factors, self-expression and relational and epistemic motivation (Echterhoff and Schmalbach, 2018). According to the shared reality theory, personal goal disclosure is driven by relational and epistemic motivation (Hardin and Higgins, 1996).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obese customers’ fitness goal disclosure on social media: exploring weight-loss image sharing on emotions and healthy lifestyle aspirations

Singh

Sharma

2022

EJM

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Purpose Obesity is today’s most neglected, yet blatantly visible, public health problem. This study aims to examine the role of social media and goal-directed behavior in motivating healthy lifestyle intentions for customers experiencing obesity. It investigates the distinct roles of self-conscious emotions (shame and pride) and weight-transformational posts shared by others on social media as moderators of these relationships. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model uses the goal-directed behavior theory and social comparison theory, tested using data collected from 804 obese customers in Fiji through an experimental design. Findings Weight-loss transformation posts by others on social media, elicit distinct emotions for obese customers. Obese customers who felt guilt and shame due to shared weight-loss transformation posts showed a stronger association between goal disclosure and healthy lifestyle intention. In addition, the association between goal disclosure and healthy lifestyle intention is conditionally mediated by goal commitment, specifically for those obese customers that elicited guilt over shame due to shared weight-loss transformation posts by others on social media. Research limitations/implications Despite the adoption of an experimental design using a fictional stimulus being a commonly used method in marketing studies, external validity issues are likely. Also, this study examines obese customer behavior relating to Facebook. In addition, data collection for this study has been done from a single country perspective. Therefore, caution needs to be exercised when generalizing the findings of this study. Practical implications The findings assist businesses and marketers in the health and fitness industry to better leverage social media and goal-directed behavior and understand the emotions of obese customers to undertake data-driven precision marketing strategies. Originality/value The findings provide novel insights into goal disclosure and commitment, electronic word-of-mouth on social media platforms, self-conscious emotions and healthy lifestyle intentions for customers experiencing obesity.

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How shared reality is created in interpersonal communication

Cited by 18 publications

References 39 publications

A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T

A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T

Discovering trends of social interaction behavior over time: An introduction to relational event modeling

Obese customers’ fitness goal disclosure on social media: exploring weight-loss image sharing on emotions and healthy lifestyle aspirations

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