Identity Fusion between Imaginary Characters and Oneself During Moral Dilemmas: An Examination of Cognitive Quarantine During Adult Pretend Play and Pretensive Shared Reality

Can the pretend and fanciful impinge upon reality? Over two studies (of which the second was pre-registered) we examine to what degree there is a ‘cognitive quarantine’ between the real and the imagined. We examine the permeability between real and fictive identities (using the ‘identity fusion’ construct), and establish a novel ‘cognitive porousness’ scale. We outline several theoretically relevant factors, such as emotional intensity, unpleasantness, and enjoyment which we expected to influence permeability. We also examined the Euclidean distance between one's real and one's fictive personality and moral identity. We find one's identity is influenced by the trait permeability of the participant, as well as the moral overlap between the participant and their character. This research demonstrates the tractability of examining adult pretence from a quantitative and cognitive perspective.