Motivation Science, Vol 11(3), Sep 2025, 277-290; doi:10.1037/mot0000369
People do not form a coherent understanding of the world in isolation. Instead, people cocreate a sense of what is real and true through shared reality—the experience of shared attitudes and judgments about the world. However, little is known about when and with whom shared reality emerges. Building on the people-as-means goal framework, we tested in three studies (N = 851) whether people are motivated to experience more shared reality with instrumental others (those who support their goals) than with noninstrumental others. Experimentally manipulating another person’s instrumentality led people to create more shared reality with them, as assessed by an implicit behavioral measure (Study 1). People reported greater shared reality with those in their social network who were instrumental for more (vs. fewer) of their goals (Study 2). Finally, experimentally heightening goal importance increased generalized shared reality with instrumental (vs. noninstrumental) others (Study 3). We discuss implications for relationships, shared reality, and motivated cognition research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)