Group communicators, perceived entitativity, and persuasion: A self-validation analysis

The extent to which a group is cohesive or entitative has been shown to play a key role in how much perceivers attend to and process group-relevant information. However, less is known about how entitativity may guide the metacognitive perceptions that people produce toward a group. The current research examined how group message sources that differ in entitativity can influence how confident people are in their thoughts about a communication. In Study 1, participants rated a highly entitative group as more likely to present valid information compared to a low entitativity source. Consistent with these beliefs, Study 2 participants were more confident and had attitudes that were more reflective of their message-related thoughts when source entitativity was high rather than low. Furthermore, the results of Study 3 suggest these self-validation effects may be contingent on high processing motivation and ability. Implications for the study and practice of persuasion are discussed.