Shared-reality Efeects on Memory: Communicating to Fulfill Epistemic Needs

Communicators' tuning of a message to suit their audience's attitude about a targel can bias their subsequent memory of the target. Research shows that this effect occurs to the extent that the message serves the creation of a shared reality with the audience. In two experiments we investigated the motivational processes underlying such audience-tuning memory biases. Experiment 1 found that when audience tuning was motivated by a shared-reality motive (vs. compliance with a blatant demand), the memory bias was found even when the audience-attitude information was provided after the target information had already been encoded. In Experiment 2, communicators' epistemic needs were directly manipulated by giving them bogus feedback regarding their ability to form social judgments. Only communicators in the high (vs. low) epistemic-need condition tuned their message to their audience and, by so doing, they attained a confident view of the target, as well as a memory of the target that was consistent with their message.