Collective recognition and function in concepts of institutional social groups

We investigate ordinary concepts of institutional groups: stable, cooperative, and socially constructed entities like clubs, companies, and academic departments. We use a transformation paradigm to examine participants’ causal beliefs about how groups exist and persist over time. We consider whether participants believe groups are grounded in collective recognition or function. Participants' default views about groups see them as persisting because the members or a relevant third-party collectively recognize the members as belonging to a group (Study 1-4). Social groups are dual-character though (Study 5-8). There is a second sense: the true group. This true judgment is grounded in whether the group realizes its basic function. This sense is more influenced by participants' own ideological commitments. Thus, participants can disagree about whether a group truly exists even if they agree about the bare facts. We discuss implications for theories of conceptual representation.