Does abstraction support shared reality?

Imagine the following situation: You are discussing with a colleague how long it will take to walk from your workplace to the main train station. You estimate it will take 7 minutes while your co-worker thinks it will take 12 minutes. Such a disagreement is unlikely to make you feel like you and your co-worker are on the same wavelength, have a common perspective on the topic, or even rate walk times similarly. However, if you had looked at the topic more abstractly, you would have agreed that the main station can be reached "in a few minutes". A more abstract view of an issue could therefore lead to a more shared view of an issue (that is, a so-called shared reality). Apart from such a trivial topic as the way to the main train station, all sorts of topics, situations, objects, people, and actions can be mentally constructed in a more or less abstract way. For example, an object (e.g., a piece of fruit) can be seen very broadly as part of a category (e.g., food) or much more specifically (e.g., an apple). An action can be mentally represented more in relation to its goal (abstract) or its implementation (concrete). This research project addresses the question of whether abstractions can fundamentally contribute to the creation of a shared reality. Six studies are planned: Study 1 tests whether the abstraction of an object of conversation increases the subjective experience of a shared reality in a conversation. Studies 2 and 3 use an experimental paradigm in which participants are asked to describe to an audience a person that the audience is said to like or dislike. The attitudes towards the person are recorded. Abstractness should increasingly distort the attitude in the direction of the alleged audience attitude, that is, more of a shared reality. Studies 4 and 5 use the same experimental paradigm to examine whether abstraction stimulates a shared reality even when no description is produced at all (Study 4) or the audience consists of an out-group member (Study 5)that is, whether abstraction stimulates a shared reality under conditions that have been shown in the past to prevent a shared reality. Study 6 tests whether the effect of abstraction on shared reality can be captured using another method (that is a reaction-time method). How specific situations affect whether people form a shared reality or not has rarely been studied. This research project thus represents a valuable addition to previous research on shared reality, particularly as it introduces a potentially important factor influencing the emergence of shared realities (namely, abstraction).