Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 145-152.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.01.16

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The “Saying-Is-Believing” Effect: From the Perspective of Shared Reality Theory

CUI Ziqian1, ZHANG Huan1,2,3, LIU Xiping1,2,3   

  1. 1. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    2. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    3. Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students' Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387
  • Published:2025-01-22

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Abstract: In the process of interpersonal communication, speakers usually adjust their oral output according to the characteristics of the audience, which is called the audience-tuning effect. Meanwhile, speakers’ memory of the output information was changed in a long-term period, which is called the “Saying-Is-Believing” (SIB) effect. Early theories (the basic information process and the cognitive dissonance) had attempted to explain this phenomenon, but the research evidence remained controversial. According to the recent shared reality theory, humans are driven by epistemic motivation and affiliative motivation to work with others to build a shared reality representation of the world, which leads to the SIB effect. Future studies should explore the challenges and revelations of shared reality theory in explaining the SIB effect. In addition, researchers should also combine the methods of social cognitive neuroscience to explore the neural process and its cognitive explanation of the SIB effect on a broader scale and pay more attention to the widespread application of the SIB effect in real life.

Key words: “saying-is-believing” effect, shared reality, epistemic motivation, affiliative motivation

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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