Shared Reality in Interpersonal Communication

Shared reality refers to the subjective experience of holding common inner states—beliefs, attitudes or feelings—about a topic or target with one or more interlocutors. It arises through two principal pathways: social verification, in which individuals seek explicit confirmation of their own judgments, and cognitive alignment, whereby communicators internalise another’s viewpoint through processes such as the “saying-is-believing” effect. The establishment of shared reality underpins successful coordination, fosters interpersonal rapport and strengthens epistemic trust between partners. As a dynamic construct, it operates across dyads, small groups and larger audiences, shaping both moment-by-moment conversational exchanges and longer-term behavioural outcomes. Advances in psychometric tools now enable precise measurement of target-specific shared reality, revealing its influence on memory distortion, attitude change and real-world decisions. The ubiquity of shared-reality processes underscores their relevance to domains as diverse as public health messaging, intergroup relations, collaborative work and digital communication platforms. By illuminating how individuals co-construct and maintain mutual understanding, research on shared reality offers practical insights for enhancing dialogue, reducing conflict and promoting collective action on global challenges.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Shared Reality in Interpersonal Communication publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in shared reality in interpersonal communication across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Shared reality: The subjective sense of holding common inner states (beliefs, feelings, attitudes) about a target or topic with another person or group.

Social verification: A pathway to shared reality in which individuals seek explicit confirmation or agreement from others regarding their judgments or perceptions.

Saying-is-believing effect: A cognitive alignment process where communicators’ own attitudes shift toward those they express to an anticipated audience.

Target-specific shared reality (SR-T): A psychometrically validated construct measuring the extent to which individuals experience shared inner states about a particular target in interpersonal exchanges.

Epistemic trust: The degree to which a conversational partner is perceived as a reliable source of knowledge, facilitating the formation of shared reality.

References

1. A Tool for Assessing the Experience of Shared Reality: Validation of the German SR-T. Frontiers in Psychology (2019).
2. The Audience-Tuning Effect of Negative Stereotypes in Communication. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).
3. How Group Perception Affects What People Share and How People Feel: The Role of Entitativity and Epistemic Trust in the “Saying-Is-Believing” Effect. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).
4. The role of target‐specific shared reality in interpersonal interactions and protective health behaviours. European Journal of Social Psychology (2024).