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.

中文翻译：

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存在的孤立和信仰验证的斗争

人们表现出对信念验证的强烈需求，他们通过与他人分享现实来满足这种需求。在这里，我们检验了这样的假设：存在隔离——在一个人的经历中感到孤独——会干扰人们分享现实的能力，从而使他们的信念得到验证。在研究 1 和 2 中，参与者阅读一个提出选择的场景，评估他们认为会选择这两个选项的同龄人的百分比，然后报告他们自己的选择及其确定性。在这两项研究中，存在隔离是预期一致性和确定性的显着负面预测因素。人际隔离（即孤独感）与这些变量中的任何一个都无关。而且，研究 2 的中介分析表明，预期一致性以假设的方式调节了存在隔离与确定性之间的关系：存在隔离预测了高度的不确定性，因为存在隔离程度高的人倾向于不相信其他人会做出相同的选择。在研究 3 中，即使在控制了人际隔离、自尊和抑郁之后，存在隔离与预期一致性呈负相关。这些发现证明了存在隔离的认知影响，并为未来的研究提供了见解。即使在控制了人际隔离、自尊和抑郁之后，存在隔离与预期的协议负相关。这些发现证明了存在隔离的认知影响，并为未来的研究提供了见解。即使在控制了人际隔离、自尊和抑郁之后，存在隔离与预期的协议负相关。这些发现证明了存在隔离的认知影响，并为未来的研究提供了见解。