Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 623-640 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | European Journal of Social Psychology |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
Communicators often tune their message about a target to the audience's attitude toward that target. This tuning can shape a communicator's own evaluation of the target, which reflects the creation of a shared reality with the audience. So far, evidence for shared-reality creation has been confined to one specific target. In two experiments, we examined whether and when a shared reality would generalize to other targets. In Experiment 1, shared-reality creation about an ambiguous sexist target generalized to the evaluation of a new ambiguous sexist target for which no audience attitude was provided. However, this happened only when there was high (vs. low) commonality with the audience regarding previous judgments. In Experiment 2, we investigated conditions for the temporal persistence of generalization. One week after message tuning to a high-commonality audience, a shared reality generalized to a new ambiguous sexist target when participants recalled the shared-reality creation about the initial target, but it did not generalize in conditions without such recall. Also, no generalization occurred for non-ambiguous or non-sexist targets. Results suggest that shared reality generalization depends on perceived commonality with the audience, recollection of shared reality at time of judgment, and similarity between new and initial targets.
Keywords
- Attitude generalization, Audience tuning, Saying-is-believing, Shared reality
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)
- Social Psychology
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In: European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 45, No. 5, 01.08.2015, p. 623-640.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The generalization of shared reality
T2 - When communication about one target shapes evaluations of other targets
AU - Bebermeier, Sarah
AU - Echterhoff, Gerald
AU - Bohner, Gerd
AU - Hellmann, Jens H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - Communicators often tune their message about a target to the audience's attitude toward that target. This tuning can shape a communicator's own evaluation of the target, which reflects the creation of a shared reality with the audience. So far, evidence for shared-reality creation has been confined to one specific target. In two experiments, we examined whether and when a shared reality would generalize to other targets. In Experiment 1, shared-reality creation about an ambiguous sexist target generalized to the evaluation of a new ambiguous sexist target for which no audience attitude was provided. However, this happened only when there was high (vs. low) commonality with the audience regarding previous judgments. In Experiment 2, we investigated conditions for the temporal persistence of generalization. One week after message tuning to a high-commonality audience, a shared reality generalized to a new ambiguous sexist target when participants recalled the shared-reality creation about the initial target, but it did not generalize in conditions without such recall. Also, no generalization occurred for non-ambiguous or non-sexist targets. Results suggest that shared reality generalization depends on perceived commonality with the audience, recollection of shared reality at time of judgment, and similarity between new and initial targets.
AB - Communicators often tune their message about a target to the audience's attitude toward that target. This tuning can shape a communicator's own evaluation of the target, which reflects the creation of a shared reality with the audience. So far, evidence for shared-reality creation has been confined to one specific target. In two experiments, we examined whether and when a shared reality would generalize to other targets. In Experiment 1, shared-reality creation about an ambiguous sexist target generalized to the evaluation of a new ambiguous sexist target for which no audience attitude was provided. However, this happened only when there was high (vs. low) commonality with the audience regarding previous judgments. In Experiment 2, we investigated conditions for the temporal persistence of generalization. One week after message tuning to a high-commonality audience, a shared reality generalized to a new ambiguous sexist target when participants recalled the shared-reality creation about the initial target, but it did not generalize in conditions without such recall. Also, no generalization occurred for non-ambiguous or non-sexist targets. Results suggest that shared reality generalization depends on perceived commonality with the audience, recollection of shared reality at time of judgment, and similarity between new and initial targets.
KW - Attitude generalization
KW - Audience tuning
KW - Saying-is-believing
KW - Shared reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84939574560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/ejsp.2115
DO - 10.1002/ejsp.2115
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84939574560
VL - 45
SP - 623
EP - 640
JO - European Journal of Social Psychology
JF - European Journal of Social Psychology
SN - 0046-2772
IS - 5
ER -