Failure to share reality and its consequences for self-concept clarity

Abstract

Shared reality theory argues that people are motivated to perceive the world in similar ways to people around them to fulfill epistemic and relational motives. However, most research on shared reality has focused on dyads. Taking a broader perspective, disagreement with members of one’s social networks may threaten shared reality, with downstream consequences for confidence in core cognitive structures, including the self-concept. In four studies, we manipulated (Study 1) and measured (Studies 2–4) perceived disagreement within an individual’s social network. Results revealed that, especially when epistemic and social motives were high, disagreeing with or perceiving disagreement in one’s social network was associated with lower self-concept clarity, which mediated negative consequences for well-being. Comparing network disagreement to network diversity, we found that disagreement better explained effects on self-concept clarity. These results suggest that one’s broader social network can impact attempts to share reality, with consequences for the self and well-being.