How to be “groupy” matters: Groups with shared traits and shared goals engender distinct patterns of social judgments

Abstract

By bringing in the Big-Two model of social perception, the present research extended previous literature regarding how people perceive homogeneous and cohesive groups from the process level to the content level. We compared the effects of intragroup similarity and interaction on warmth and competence judgments about groups. The similarity or interaction (high or low) of the novel groups (Study 1) and an international group (Study 2) was manipulated by descriptions. Participants were asked to rate the target groups on warmth- and competence-related traits. Consistent with our hypotheses, similarity polarized both warmth and competence judgments, whereas interaction polarized warmth judgments but enhanced competence judgments. The current research not only advances group perception research but also provides practical implications for improving group image and intergroup relations.