Merged minds: Generalized shared reality in dyadic relationships.

Abstract

Many everyday conversations, whether between close partners or strangers interacting for the first time, are about the world external to their relationship, such as music, food, or current events. Yet, the focus of most research on interpersonal relationships to date has been on the ways in which partners perceive each other and their relationship. We propose that one critical aspect of interpersonal interactions is developing a sense of dyadic, generalized shared reality—the subjective experience of sharing a set of inner states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, or beliefs) in common with a particular interaction partner about the world in general, including the world external to the relationship. Across 9 studies, we use mixed methods to investigate the unique role of generalized shared reality in interpersonal interactions, both between close partners and strangers. We hypothesize that generalized shared reality predicts how people connect with each other and perceive the world around them. We also investigate the observable, dyadic behavioral signatures of generalized shared reality in interpersonal interactions. Finally, we examine the motivation to uphold an existing sense of generalized shared reality. We hypothesize that couples high on baseline generalized shared reality exhibit motivated, dyadic interaction behaviors to reaffirm their generalized shared reality in the face of experimentally manipulated threat. By identifying a unique dimension of everyday interactions, these studies aim to capture a critical aspect of the lived subjective experience of human relationships that has not been captured before.

Social purpose in an organization from the perspective of an employee: a self-determination outlook on the meaning of work

“…For instance, social identification has been linked with positive health outcomes [20] and lower turnover intentions [21]. Additionally, shared experiences and a possibility to discuss them allows employees to create 'shared reality' , which increases interpersonal connectedness and trust [22,23]. Purposeful recruitment which considers person-organization fit as it relates to congruence in values that relate to benevolence can facilitate this process [24].…”

Making the Right Decision: Intensifying the Worth of a Chosen Option

“…Prior work on shared reality has shown that people are especially likely to create a shared reality with those they trust epistemically (as a source of information about the world—see Echterhoff & Higgins, 2017 for a review) and with whom they feel connected (e.g., in‐group members; Echterhoff et al., 2005; Echterhoff et al., 2008; Sinclair et al., 2005; or close relationship partners, Rossignac‐Milon et al., 2020; Rossignac‐Milon & Higgins, 2018). They are also more likely to create shared reality with a group of people with a common feeling or belief (versus with an individual; Echterhoff et al., 2017; Higgins et al., 2007).…”

“…In a recent study, participants jointly interpreted ambiguous images with an online chat partner. Participants who experienced a greater shared reality with their online partner felt more certain that they knew what was really going on in the images—in other words, they felt that their interpretation of the images was “right” (Rossignac‐Milon et al., 2020). In another study in this paper, romantic dyads were given the opportunity to select a product together—an image print to take home.…”

“…In another study in this paper, romantic dyads were given the opportunity to select a product together—an image print to take home. As coded by observers, couples who appeared to create a greater shared reality during this decision by developing a joint perspective ultimately appeared more satisfied with their decision (Rossignac‐Milon et al., 2020). This finding suggests that the process of creating a shared reality with a close partner increases the worth of the selected option.…”

Culture, ecology, and grounded procedures

“…It also stems from shared realitythe perceived commonality with others of feelings, beliefs and concerns (inner states) about something Hardin & Higgins, 1996). Research has shown that the experience of shared reality predicts certainty (Rossignac-Milon, Bolger, Zee, Boothby, & Higgins, 2020); for example, conversation partners discussing ambiguous images who create a greater sense of shared reality feel more certain of what is truly going on in the images. We propose that cleansing behaviors rooted in shared practices feel truly clean, because people believe they clean in the right way (Higgins, Nakkawita, Rossignac-Milon, Pinelli, & Jun, 2020).…”