Open AccessCollective recognition and function in concepts of institutional social groups.
Author(s) -
Alexander Noyes,
Frank C. Keil
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of experimental psychology. general
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.521
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1939-2222
pISSN - 0096-3445
DOI - 10.1037/xge0000711
Subject(s) - social psychology , function (biology) , psychology , psycinfo , group (periodic table) , social group , ideology , representation (politics) , social representation , grounded theory , dual (grammatical number) , epistemology , sociology , qualitative research , political science , politics , social science , law , art , chemistry , philosophy , literature , medline , organic chemistry , evolutionary biology , biology
We investigate ordinary concepts of institutional groups: stable, cooperative, and socially constructed entities like clubs, companies, and academic departments. We use a transformation paradigm to examine participants' causal beliefs about how groups exist and persist over time. We consider whether participants believe groups are grounded in collective recognition or function. Participants' default views about groups see them as persisting because the members or a relevant third-party collectively recognize the members as belonging to a group (Studies 1-4). Social groups are dual-character though (Studies 5-8). There is a second sense: the true group. This true judgment is grounded in whether the group realizes its basic function. This sense is more influenced by participants' own ideological commitments. Thus, participants can disagree about whether a group truly exists even if they agree about the bare facts. We discuss implications for theories of conceptual representation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).