Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:38:08.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shared reality and abstraction: The social nature of predictive models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Maya Rossignac-Milon ,
Federica Pinelli  and
E. Tory Higgins Open the ORCID record for E. Tory Higgins [Opens in a new window]
Maya Rossignac-Milon
Affiliation:
Management Division, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, [email protected]
Federica Pinelli
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Columbia University, New York, [email protected]
E. Tory Higgins
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Columbia University, New York, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We propose that abstraction is an interpersonal process and serves a social function. Research on shared reality shows that in communication, people raise their level of abstraction in order to create a common understanding with their communication partner, which can subsequently distort their mental representation of the object of communication. This work demonstrates that, beyond building accurate models, abstraction also functions to build socially shared models – to create a shared reality.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e145
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, R. (1958) How shall a thing be called? Psychological Review 65(1):14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Echterhoff, G. & Higgins, E. T. (2017) Creating shared reality in interpersonal and intergroup communication: The role of epistemic processes and their interplay. European Review of Social Psychology 28(1):175–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Echterhoff, G. & Higgins, E. T. (in press) Shared reality: Motivated connection and motivated cognition. In: Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles, 3rd Edition, ed. Van Lange, P., Kruglanski, A. W. & Higgins, E. T.. Guilford.Google Scholar
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T. & Levine, J. M. (2009) Shared reality experiencing commonality with others’ inner states about the world. Perspectives on Psychological Science 4(5):496–521. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01161.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, C. D. & Higgins, E. T. (1996) Shared reality: How social verification makes the subjective objective. In: Handbook of motivation and cognition: Vol. 3. The interpersonal context, ed. Sorrentino, R. M. & Higgins, E. T., pp. 28–84. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T. (1992) Achieving “shared reality” in the communication game: A social action that creates meaning. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 11:107–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, E. T. (2019) Shared reality: What makes us strong and tears us apart. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirst, W. & Coman, A. (2018) Building a collective memory: The case for collective forgetting. Current Opinion in Psychology 23:88–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roelofs, A. (1992) A spreading-activation theory of lemma retrieval in speaking. Cognition 42(1–3): 107–42. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(92)90041-f.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rossignac-Milon, M. & Higgins, E. T. (2018a) Beyond intrapersonal cognitive consistency: Shared reality and the interpersonal motivation for truth. Psychological Inquiry 29(2):86–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossignac-Milon, M. & Higgins, E. T. (2018b) Epistemic companions: The development of shared reality in close relationships. Current Opinion in Psychology 23:66–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trope, Y. & Liberman, N. (2010) Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review 117(2):440–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirst, W. & Echterhoff, G. (2012) Remembering in conversations: The social sharing and reshaping of memories. Annual Review of Psychology 63:55–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yip-Bannicq, M. (2018) Construal enhanced conflict management: The role of abstraction in the regulation of conflict in romantic relationships [doctoral dissertation, New York University].Google Scholar