Perceived cohesion within a group triggers person-like processing of its members.

Evidence

Group members who are closely tied to each other or to the group identity are generally perceived to behave in a more coherent manner and are subject to person-like information processing compared to the perception of a loose collection of people. The lay intuition that a social group may act as a distinct social agent has been conceptualized by the term “entitativity,” which was originally coined by Campbell (1958). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 141

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the term ‘entitativity’ (Campbell 1958) for a group perceived as a distinct social agent — a useful definitional anchor.
• QUESTION: Entitativity’s causal trigger (perceived unity) closely parallels processes behind dehumanizing or animalizing outgroups — worth chasing whether high entitativity in an outgroup increases or decreases blame for its members.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 141