The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that experiencing reality with your romantic partner can provide a sense of meaning and reduce uncertainty, as it is used to create a sense of purpose.
Despite extensive research being conducted on how people find meaning in their lives based on their accomplishments and values, relatively little literature has focused on the routes people use to find meaning in their lives, and relationships such as romantic relationships have long been studied for their relational and emotional benefits.
The purpose of this investigation was to uncover a new aspect of relationships that has not yet received attention. It focused on how partners collaborate to develop a joint understanding of the world, called shared reality, and how this increases satisfaction and fulfillment in life.
M. Catalina Eneström, postdoctoral researcher at IESE Business School, notes that the study authors highlight the importance of relationships in helping people make sense of their world.
Using a variety of techniques, from cross-sectional surveys to long-term data analysis, and incorporating multiple instances of experimental manipulations, the study was conducted with the aim of exploring the relationship between shared reality, uncertainty, and meaning in life.
To explore the relationship between shared reality and meaning in life within romantic couples, Eneström and colleagues conducted a laboratory study in which participants in the first-year experiment talked about shared reality and meaning in life. Participants in the experiment were measured against established scales and behaviors associated with shared reality, such as agreement and completing each other’s sentences, which were behaviorally coded in the conversation.
The results showed “pairs of satisfaction with respect to emotions and relationship quality,” that “people found that those with higher shared reality beliefs had higher meaning in life, even after controlling for satisfaction in those relationships.”
That is, to say that the benefits of shared reality went beyond general relationship satisfaction; On the other hand, “observable shared reality behavior” predicted self-reported meaning, meaning in life, etc. A study was conducted by the researchers in which participants, in both interracial and interethnic romantic relationships, were asked to consider their shared reality with their partner on issues related to racism and the socio-political climate. Participants completed surveys of shared reality, uncertainty, and meaning in life.
The findings showed that with a greater shared reality, the individual would ‘experience less ignorance about racism’ and that greater knowledge about the broader social conditions that facilitate the experience reflects greater meaning for human beings, and these results, although slightly less reliable than experimental “statistical measures” of satisfaction (in test subjects in which the tests were repeated), further highlighted the importance of shared reality in reducing uncertainty and greater meaning in relationships.
Eneström had previously explored the effect of partners’ differing experiences on shared reality, but later investigated how this could be achieved. They then polled either Black Americans or White Americans with similar experiences and asked questions about whether their experiences with racism or social factors could influence their shared reality. As a result, no differences were reported between interracial and interracial couples, indicating that they can still form a shared understanding of reality.
According to the study, the possibility of a reduction in task-related uncertainty over time due to shared reality suggests that it can provide clarity and purpose despite highly stressful and uncertain work situations.
To provide causal evidence of the relationship between shared reality, uncertainty, and meaning in life, Study 4 involved randomly assigned participants in romantic relationships who were asked to recall either a high or low shared reality experience. Participants then completed the recall task and reported their level of uncertainty about the recall and their sense of meaning in life.
Based on the results, recalling a high shared reality experience decreased uncertainty about the goal, which led to an increase in meaning in life. Although participant’s positive mood is not related to conflict or relationship satisfaction in the recalled experience, the findings support the idea that manipulating shared reality primarily reduces uncertainty and leads to higher levels of meaning in life.
The study used an innovative experimental technique to examine shared reality in the context of a couple-level perspective. Participants read a picture depicting a hypothetical couple discussing a book.