Entitativity of Social Groups Including Robots

As robots increasingly appear in social settings, it is unclear whether groups that include robots are perceived as coherent social entities. This study examined whether groups including robots are judged as less entitative (“groupy”) than all-human groups. In a vignette-based online experiment (N = 160), participants rated eleven group scenarios (e.g., co-workers or musicians) on eight entitativity dimensions (e.g., similarity or interaction), with group composition manipulated between subjects (all-human, human–robot, text-only). Results showed strong effects of group scenario but minimal effects of group composition: human–robot groups were generally perceived as equally entitative as all-human groups. Only similarity differed, with human–robot groups rated less similar in select scenarios, indicating the importance of similarity in outer appearance in the perception of a group's coherence. Overall, the presence of robots did not reduce perceived group entitativity, suggesting that group type matters more than group composition.