For and Against: Perceived Entitativity of Supportive and Oppositional Opinion Groups

Abstract

It is argued that self-labeling of opinion groups as holding ‘for’ or ‘against’ attitudes influences perceived entitativity of such groups. Based on literature on positivity biases and Moscovici’s analysis of social change (1976), we predicted that individuals may associate support with nomicity, and should perceive supportive groups as more entitative than oppositional ones. In three studies, participants rated the entitativity of supportive and oppositional groups varying in extremity and homogeneity. The first two studies showed that support was associated with greater entitativity than opposition, but only in the case of extreme opinions. They also replicated past findings that extremity and homogeneity increase perceived entitativity. A third study showed that activating an intergroup context did not lead to an ingroup-outgroup effect, but suggested that the joint effects of favorability and extremity depend on how well-defined opinions the groups are supposed to have.