Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA.
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2022 Apr;61(2):491-509. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12492. Epub 2021 Sep 9.
People exhibit a strong need for belief validation, which they meet by sharing reality with others. Here, we examine the hypothesis that existential isolation - feeling alone in one's experiences - interferes with people's ability to share reality and thus achieve validation for their beliefs. In Studies 1 and 2, participants read a scenario that presented a choice, rated the percent of their peers whom they thought would select each of the two options, and then reported their own choice and their certainty of it. Existential isolation was a significant negative predictor of expected agreement and certainty in both studies. Interpersonal isolation (i.e., loneliness) did not relate to either of these variables. Moreover, mediational analyses from Study 2 show that expected agreement mediated the relationship between existential isolation and certainty in the hypothesized manner: existential isolation predicted high levels of uncertainty because people high in existential isolation tended not to believe that others would make the same choice. In Study 3, existential isolation correlated negatively with expected agreement even after controlling for interpersonal isolation, self-esteem, and depression. The findings attest to the epistemic implications of existential isolation and provide insight for future research.
人们表现出强烈的信仰验证需求，他们通过与他人分享现实来满足这种需求。在这里，我们检验了这样一个假设：存在孤立——在自己的经历中感到孤独——会干扰人们分享现实的能力，从而无法验证他们的信仰。在研究 1 和研究 2 中，参与者阅读了一个呈现选择的场景，对他们认为会选择两个选项中每个选项的同龄人的百分比进行了评分，然后报告了自己的选择和对该选择的确定程度。在这两项研究中，存在孤立都是预期一致性和确定程度的显著负预测因子。人际孤立（即孤独）与这两个变量都没有关系。此外，研究 2 的中介分析表明，预期一致性在假设的方式中介了存在孤立和确定性之间的关系：存在孤立预测了高水平的不确定性，因为存在孤立较高的人往往不相信其他人会做出相同的选择。在研究 3 中，即使控制了人际孤立、自尊和抑郁，存在孤立也与预期一致性呈负相关。这些发现证明了存在孤立的认识论意义，并为未来的研究提供了见解。
