Perceived entitativity of social networks

Four studies examined how people perceive entitativity of small and large social networks based on the graphical information of interaction among individuals. Participants rated social network graphs on entitativity while controlling for the number of individuals and connectivity of social relationships. Overall, network connectivity corresponded to the degree of interaction among individuals in a social network. Whereas entitativity of small social networks slowly increased with a higher level of connectivity, entitativity of large social networks rapidly increased with a lower level of connectivity. The difference in the increase rates of entitativity is explained in terms of how individuals typically interact in different sizes of social networks.