Perceived group unity arises from proximity, similarity, and interdependence cues

Evidence

A few years after The Nature of Prejudice was published, Donald Campbell (1958) grappled with the issue of how people perceive groups as coherent entities. He suggested that perceptions of entitativity could be based on cues such as proximity and similarity as well as conceptual cues such as cohesiveness and interdependence. The fundamental issue of how the “groupness” of a group is perceived - after lying dormant for an extended period - has become the focus of a great deal of research in the last decade (for reviews, see Hamilton, Sherman, & Castelli, 2002; Yzerbyt, Corneille, & Estrada, 2001). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1377

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘entitativity’ as the perceived coherence or groupness of a social group, grounded in Campbell’s 1958 cue theory.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1377
• XREF: connects to: Group membership can be sustained through embodied co-presence without conversation — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 685; Group cohesion grows from networked personal bonds, not mere shared categories — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 52