Shared reality: This psychological factor might be key to your success

Researchers have unearthed a significant factor in personal goal achievement: the phenomenon of “shared reality” with instrumental others. These findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, offer fresh insights into the age-old question of why some individuals attain their objectives more readily than others.

Shared reality refers to the perception of sharing inner states – feelings, beliefs, or concerns – with others regarding the world. This concept goes beyond mere liking or closeness in relationships. It involves creating a common understanding of external events, people, and objects, which is crucial for navigating and succeeding in the world. Instrumental others refers to individuals in our lives who significantly aid or facilitate our ability to achieve our goals. These can be mentors, colleagues, friends, family members, or any other key figures who actively contribute to our journey towards success. 

Traditionally, psychological research has heavily focused on individual factors such as self-control, grit, and a growth mindset as key drivers of personal success. These attributes were often seen as the cornerstone of goal attainment, leading to healthier and more successful lives. However, a closer look at real-world scenarios suggests that this individual-centric view might be incomplete. This observation led researchers to shift their focus from individual strengths to the potential impact of social connections on goal success.

“Personally, I see this as a first step towards understanding why people become attached to certain worldviews and interpretations of reality,” said study author Abdo Elnakouri (@AbdoElnakouri), a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The paper finds that people’s shared reality with others is tied to goal success. The more someone sees the world in a similar way with, say, a key co-worker, the more successful they are at work. If so, then maintaining and defending that reality with their co-worker is important, not only for their connection but for that person’s career success. Therefore, people’s attachment to certain worldviews might be due to their instrumental value for concrete goals!”

“More broadly, the paper also help us to understand why some people might be successful. Connecting with others around us is important and relating to their minds through shared reality appears to be a key way to do that. The paper finds that relating to people’s minds through shared reality seems to be more important than simply liking or feelings close to them.”

The researchers conducted eight separate studies, which included 1,326 participants in total, to investigate the relationship between shared reality with instrumental others and goal success.

Study 1 included 103 couples and delved into the relationship between perceived partner instrumentality and shared reality within romantic dyads. Participants independently completed surveys assessing their perception of their partner’s role in supporting their personal goals (referred to as perceptions of partner instrumentality) and the extent to which they shared inner states like beliefs and feelings about the world with their partner (perceptions of shared reality). These surveys were administered both during an initial lab session and then again in a follow-up online survey conducted one year later.

The findings from Study 1 revealed a significant connection between an individual’s perception of their partner’s instrumentality and their sense of shared reality with that partner. Specifically, participants who regarded their partners as more instrumental in achieving their goals reported experiencing a higher level of shared reality with them. This correlation was observed at both the initial and the follow-up stages of the study.

Interestingly, while there was a positive correlation between the partners’ perceptions of shared reality, indicating some level of agreement, the study predominantly found actor effects. This means that an individual’s perception of their partner’s instrumentality primarily influenced their own sense of shared reality, rather than significantly affecting their partner’s perception.

The researchers then conducted a series of three studies (2a, 2b, and 2c) focused on exploring the relationship between shared reality with instrumental others and noninstrumental others.

In Study 2a, 236 undergraduate students participated. They were asked to nominate instrumental others and noninstrumental others across three separate goal domains: academic, health and fitness, and social life. This process involved identifying individuals who either positively contributed to or had no impact on the participant’s success in these domains.

Participants then evaluated their relationships with these individuals across various dimensions, including shared reality, closeness, liking, and epistemic trust. Additionally, participants reported their perceived success in each goal domain.

The findings from Study 2a revealed that participants reported significantly higher levels of shared reality with instrumental others compared to noninstrumental others. Furthermore, shared reality with instrumental others was a robust predictor of reported goal success.

Study 2b was a close replication of Study 2a but focused exclusively on the academic goal domain. It involved 204 undergraduate students and the results were mostly consistent with Study 2a.

Study 2c adopted a longitudinal approach, involving two time points. Initially, 267 undergraduate students nominated instrumental others and noninstrumental others for academic and health and fitness goals. They completed similar assessments as in the previous studies and also set short-term goals within each domain. After 3-4 weeks, participants reported their progress on these goals and again assessed their relationships with the nominated individuals.

In Study 2c, results at Time 1 replicated the patterns of higher shared reality with instrumental others observed in Studies 2a and 2b. Most notably, instrumental others shared reality measured at Time 1 was found to predict goal success at Time 2, suggesting a temporal link between shared reality and future goal achievement.

Study 3 aimed to investigate the potential mechanisms through which shared reality with instrumental others influences goal success. The researchers recruited 205 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform, broadening the demographic scope to include a more varied age range and focusing on career goals instead of academic goals.

Participants nominated instrumental others and noninstrumental others for their career goals and evaluated these relationships in terms of shared reality, closeness, liking, epistemic trust, and perceived goal success. Additionally, the study introduced several potential mediators to explore how shared reality might lead to goal success.

The findings from Study 3 indicated that shared reality with instrumental others was a significant predictor of self-reported goal success. In exploring the mediating factors, the study found that self-efficacy emerged as a key mediator. This suggests that the experience of shared reality with instrumental others might boost individuals’ confidence in their ability to achieve goals, thereby enhancing their likelihood of success.

Other potential mediators, such as goal importance, goal effort, and ease of learning from instrumental others, also showed significant mediation effects. However, when all the successful mediators were considered together in a simultaneous mediation analysis, self-efficacy remained the most robust individual mediator.

In another series of three studies (4a, 4b, and 4c) , the researchers focused on the impact of shared reality with instrumental others on actual academic performance, as measured by Grade Point Average (GPA).

In Study 4a, a pilot project, 99 undergraduate students participated. They were asked to retrospectively nominate instrumental others and noninstrumental others who were influential in their academic goals during a previous semester. Following the nomination, participants assessed their relationships with these individuals, focusing on shared reality, closeness, liking, epistemic trust, and self-reported academic success.

Importantly, participants were also asked to upload their unofficial transcripts to provide their actual GPA for the relevant semester. However, only 50 participants provided usable GPA data. This study served as an initial foray into linking shared reality with actual academic performance.

The results of Study 4a indicated that while there was a trend suggesting a positive relationship between shared reality with instrumental others and GPA, it wasn’t statistically significant, potentially due to the small sample size. This pilot study provided initial insights but also highlighted the challenges of obtaining objective academic performance data.

Building upon Study 4a, Study 4b expanded the sample size and followed a similar retrospective approach. This time, 291 undergraduate students participated, with 193 providing usable GPA data. As in Study 4a, participants retrospectively nominated instrumental others and noninstrumental others from a past semester and evaluated these relationships. They also reported their self-perceived academic success and uploaded their transcripts for GPA verification.

In Study 4b, the researchers found that shared reality with instrumental others was not a significant predictor of actual GPA when controlling for other factors, such as the shared reality with noninstrumental others and other relationship variables. This study suggested that while shared reality might influence perceptions of academic success, its impact on actual GPA was less clear.

Study 4c adopted a prospective approach, with 153 undergraduate students participating at the start of a new semester. They nominated instrumental others and noninstrumental others relevant to their academic goals and assessed these relationships. Additionally, they completed the same mechanism measures introduced in Study 3, including self-efficacy. At the end of the semester, the participants’ GPAs were obtained to assess the actual academic performance.

This study provided more robust findings: shared reality with instrumental others at the start of the semester significantly predicted the GPA at the end of that semester, even when controlling for shared reality with noninstrumental others and other relationship variables. This result was reinforced when combining the data from all three studies (4a, 4b, and 4c) for a comprehensive analysis.

Together, the findings suggests that success is not just a product of individual effort or talent but also significantly influenced by the quality of one’s relationships, particularly the shared reality with those instrumental in one’s life.

“The way people see the world helps them connect with others and isn’t just constructed in isolation,” Elnakouri told PsyPost. “People’s reality is co-constructed with other people, and people tend to share reality with those who help them with their goal. I think this might make us more suspicious about how oriented people’s perceptions of the world are to truth as opposed to connection.”

Despite its insights, the study has some limitations. One key concern is whether shared reality could sometimes hinder goal pursuit, such as in situations where diversity of thought is crucial. Moreover, the findings are primarily based on North American samples, and their applicability to other cultural contexts needs further exploration.

“We were not able to manipulate shared reality in this study to demonstrate causally that shared reality with instrumental others leads to goal success, but we’re working on that! We are also interested in seeing how this process might change depending on cultural context: the samples from this study were all from north America,” Elnakouri said.

The study, “In It Together: Shared Reality With Instrumental Others Is Linked to Goal Success“, was authored by Abdo Elnakouri, Maya Rossignac-Milon, Kori L. Krueger, Amanda L. Forest, E. Tory Higgins, and Abigail A. Scholer.