Working paper · IRISP/2026/004
Defining Shared Perceptions: A Conceptual Framework
A working paper on the institute's central concept: what a shared perception is, how it differs from opinion and attitude, and why it deserves measurement.
Abstract
The concept at the centre of the institute's work — the shared perception — is used widely and defined rarely. This working paper proposes a working definition: a belief about a state of the world that is held in common across a social group, is treated by its holders as description rather than preference, and is capable of being compared with evidence.
The paper distinguishes shared perceptions from neighbouring concepts — opinion, attitude, value and sentiment — and argues that the distinction matters for measurement: a perception can be wrong in a way an opinion cannot, and the distance between a perception and the evidence is itself a measurable quantity.
As a working paper, this text is published to invite criticism. The definition it proposes will be revised in the light of responses and of the institute's first measurement round.
This publication is open access. It may be shared and reproduced freely with attribution to IRISP®. Read by a synthetic voice; the text is authoritative.