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Shared reality and abstraction: The social nature of predictive models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Maya Rossignac-Milon ,
Federica Pinelli  and
E. Tory Higgins Open the ORCID record for E. Tory Higgins [Opens in a new window]
Maya Rossignac-Milon
Affiliation:
Management Division, Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY10027mr3352@columbia.edu
Federica Pinelli
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Columbia University, New York, NY10027fp2224@columbia.edu
E. Tory Higgins
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Columbia University, New York, NY10027eth1@columbia.edu
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Abstract

We propose that abstraction is an interpersonal process and serves a social function. Research on shared reality shows that in communication, people raise their level of abstraction in order to create a common understanding with their communication partner, which can subsequently distort their mental representation of the object of communication. This work demonstrates that, beyond building accurate models, abstraction also functions to build socially shared models – to create a shared reality.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e145
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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