Beyond literals, any Object in JavaScript (including functions, arrays, regexp etc) are references. This means the following
var foo = {};var bar = foo; // bar is a reference to the same objectfoo.baz = 123;console.log(bar.baz); // 123
var foo = {};var bar = foo; // bar is a referencevar baz = {}; // baz is a *new object* distinct from `foo`console.log(foo === bar); // trueconsole.log(foo === baz); // false