Grounding Sociality by Semin Gün R.;Echterhoff Gerald;

Author:Semin, Gün R.;Echterhoff, Gerald;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Behavioral Sciences
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2010-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Socially Distributed Knowledge

Research on socially shared or distributed knowledge (e.g., Gaskell & Fraser, 1990; Sperber, 1996) represents another field that is sufficiently close to shared reality to warrant examination. Shared or distributed knowledge can be roughly understood as the body of beliefs and ideas that are spread across communities or societies. This concept involves two of our conditions for shared reality: commonality of inner states (rather than just overt behaviors) and the principle of aboutness (in that they are about a target referent). However, these phenomena differ from shared reality in at least one central respect. For something to count as socially distributed knowledge, it must be, in fact, held in common between or among some set of individuals. This is not a necessary condition for shared reality. For shared reality, it is sufficient that an individual experience an inner state about something that is in common between him or her and some other person—even if, in fact, there is no such inner state in common (see Bar-Tal, 2000).

Moreover, the experience of there being a commonality is critical to whether there is a shared reality. In contrast, there can be socially distributed knowledge among a set of individuals without those individuals experiencing this commonality. Indeed, if anything, this experience of commonality is unlikely among members of larger collectives, such as societies and large-scale communities, which have been highlighted in theories of socially shared or distributed knowledge. It should also be noted that our theoretical analysis of shared reality places greater emphasis on the motivational underpinnings of sharing, especially the role of relational motives, than do approaches to distributed knowledge.

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