Shared Reality Experiencing Commonality With Others' Inner States About the World

摘要

Humans have a fundamental need to experi-ence a shared reality with others. We present a new con-ceptualization of shared reality based on four conditions.We posit (a) that shared reality involves a (subjectivelyperceived) commonality of individuals' inner states (notjust observable behaviors); (b) that shared reality is aboutsome target referent; (c) that for a shared reality to occur,the commonality of inner states must be appropriatelymotivated; and (d) that shared reality involves the expe-rience of a successful connection to other people's innerstates. In reviewing relevant evidence, we emphasize re-search on the saying-is-believing effect, which illustratesthe creation of shared reality in interpersonal communi-cation. We discuss why shared reality provides a betterexplanation of the findings from saying-is-believing studiesthan do other formulations. Finally, we examine relationsbetween our conceptualization of shared reality and re-lated constructs (including empathy, perspective taking,theory of mind, common ground, embodied synchrony, andsocially distributed knowledge) and indicate how our ap-proach may promote a comprehensive and differentiatedunderstanding of social-sharing phenomena.