Members of highly entitative groups are implicitly expected to behave consistently based on their deep-level goals instead of their shallow-level movements

Abstract

The current study investigated whether the deep properties or shallow features of behaviors are implicitly expected to be consistent across members of highly entitative groups, by exploiting the notion that goals-as deep properties-and movements-as shallow features-can be dissociated in object-directed behaviors. Participants were asked to view group members' goal-directed behaviors toward an object. Whether perceivers implicitly expected that a new member would perform the same movement to the previously visited location (i.e., exhibit shallow feature-based behavior) or a new movement to the previously visited object (i.e., exhibit deep property-based behavior) was recorded. Study 1 revealed that perceivers implicitly expected members of a highly entitative group to approach the previously visited object with a new movement (i.e., to have a consistent goal) rather than perform the same movement to the previously visited location (i.e., to express a consistent movement). Study 2 confirmed that the responses in Study 1 were explained by group members conforming to, rather than violating, internal expectations (i.e., of consistent movement). Importantly, the implicit expectation of shared behaviors across group members relies on the goal interpretation of actions instead of the associations between actions and outcomes (Study 3). Study 4 replicated the facilitation effect of Study 1 and revealed that the goal-based expectation of common behaviors among group members is based on the majority behavior instead of a single demonstration. Hence, individuals in highly entitative groups are implicitly expected to behave consistently based on the deep properties of behaviors instead of their shallow features. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).