Five (plus or minus one): The point at which an assemblage of individuals is perceived as a single, unified group

ABSTRACT

At what point is an assemblage of individuals perceived as a single, unified group? And how do demographic characteristics of these individuals influence perceptions of groupness? To answer these questions, we conducted four studies in which participants viewed sets of images that varied in the number of individuals depicted, and then identified the number of persons at which the assemblage was perceived to be a single, unified group. Across four studies, we manipulated the gender and race composition of the persons depicted. The results suggest that five (plus or minus one) people constitutes the point at which a collection of persons is perceived less like separate individuals and more like a single, unified group. However, the demographic complexity of the assemblage also influences perceived groupness. The number of individuals required to be perceived as a unified group is larger for diverse, compared to homogeneous, assemblages of individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Group perception
• entitativity
• group processes
• identity

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Tamara Ambrona and members of the Social Emotions and Emotions Laboratory at the University of Texas at Tyler for their assistance with this project. The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/6ch2z/

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/6ch2z/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric L. Stocks

Eric Stocks is a Social Psychologist from the University of Texas at Tyler who specializes in the topic areas of motivation and emotion.