Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity
Lickel and colleagues report three studies of how people perceive the entitativity of groups. In Studies 1 (United States) and 2 (Poland), participants rated forty groups on eight properties, such as size, duration and member similarity, and rated each group's entitativity. They also sorted the groups by similarity. Clustering and multidimensional scaling in both studies grouped the groups into four types: intimacy groups, task groups, social categories and loose associations. In Study 3, participants rated the properties of groups they belonged to, which replicated the earlier findings and showed that people most valued membership in groups they perceived as high in entitativity.
Lickel and colleagues report three studies of how people perceive the entitativity of groups. In Studies 1 (United States) and 2 (Poland), participants rated forty groups on eight properties, such as size, duration and member similarity, and rated each group's entitativity. They also sorted the groups by similarity. Clustering and multidimensional scaling in both studies grouped the groups into four types: intimacy groups, task groups, social categories and loose associations. In Study 3, participants rated the properties of groups they belonged to, which replicated the earlier findings and showed that people most valued membership in groups they perceived as high in entitativity.
Written from the abstract, PubMed record, 2026-10-31.
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Lickel, B., Hamilton, D. L., Wieczorkowska, G., Lewis, A., Sherman, S. J., & Uhles, A. N. (2000). Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 223-246. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.223 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.223