Lecture 18: Gaslighting Flashcards
Epistemology
a branch of philosophy that deals with questions of how we obtain knowledge
Episteme (Greek)
knowledge, understanding, or acquaintance
Logos (Greek)
account, argument, or reason
The epistemic features of close relationships
the features that impact our knowledge/ beliefs (including our beliefs about ourselves)
examples of epistemic features of close relationships
- self-expansion
- shared reality
self-expansion
as our partners bring us new experiences and roles, we gradually learn things about ourselves that we didn’t know before
shared reality
- The subjective sense of sharing inner states
- As relationships progress, we develop deeper forms of shared reality
- We move from shared experiences to shared habits, memories, beliefs, and identities
who do we form shared reality with?
with in-group members and epistemic authorities (domain-specific)
Audience tuning effect:
we tend to tune our communication to reflect what we think our communication partners believe
motivation and shared reality
Experimental work has demonstrated that if we are motivated to form shared reality with our communication partner we also are more likely to personally accept these audience-tuned messages
saying-is-believing paradigm
- Participants are given ambivalent information about a target person
- Participants are asked to describe the target person to an audience that has already formed an impression of the target
- Those who communicate with an audience who lives (vs. dislikes) the target person typically describe the target more positively
Memory bias effect
Recall of the ambivalent behavioural information is aligned with audience-tuned messages, but this effect depends on the formation/motivation for shared reality
Experiment 1a method
German participants communicated either with a German (ingroup) audience or a Turkish (outgroup) audience about a German target person with the audience presumably having either a positive or negative attitude toward him
experiment 1a findings
- Participants tuned their messages to both ingroup and outgroup audiences
- Recall was only biased in the audience’s direction when the audience was German
experiment 1b
the same pattern was found in Turkish participants
experiment 1 takeaway and remaining questions
- In shared reality theory, the intergroup memory bias in experiment 1 is viewed as stemming from a lack of epistemic trust in the outgroup
- So, the study authors tested whether increasing the epistemic authority of the outgroup reduces the intergroup memory bias
Experiment 2 method
had German participants communicate with a Turkish audience about a Turkish target (increasing the audience’s epistemic authority about the communication topic) or a German target
experiment 2 findings
- Participants had higher epistemic trust in the audience when the target belonged to the same group as the audience
- Participants recall matched their communications more when the target’s group matched the audience
experiment 3 method
this time, the researchers increased the audience’s epistemic authority via group consensus, where German participants communicate about either a German or a Turkish target with an audience of 3 Turkish people
experiment 3 results
- Replicated results of previous studies
- Messaging tuning occurred regardless of the condition
- Recall valence most aligned with the audience and target were both Turkish
- Recall was influenced by audience-tuned message even when the target was German
- This may be due to the effect of group consensus
- However, it is more consistent with shared reality theory than intergroup threat accounts
shared reality as a need
- We have a fundamental motivation to form shared reality with others
- This motivation impacts our cognition/memory
the formation of shared reality depends on:
- Group membership/identification
- Epistemic trust/authority
- Group consensus
Experimental research has shown that the intergroup bias can be reduced if:
- The epistemic authority of the outgroup is enhanced
- The epistemic consensus of the outgroup is enhanced
gaslighting
involves taking advantage of the features of close relationships
