[The effect of group size on salience of member desirability]

This study tested the hypothesis that undesirable members are salient in a small group, while desirable members become salient in a larger group. One hundred and forty-five students were randomly assigned to twelve conditions, and read sentences desirably, undesirably, or neutrally describing each member of a college student club. The twelve clubs had one of three group sizes: 13, 39, or 52, and the proportion of the desirable or undesirable to the neutral was either 11:2 or 2:11, forming a three-way (3 x 2 x 2) factorial. Twelve subjects each were asked to make proportion judgments and impression ratings. Results indicated that proportion of the undesirable members was over estimated when the group size was 13, showing negativity bias, whereas proportion of the desirable was overestimated when the size was 52, displaying positivity bias. The size 39 showed neither positivity nor negativity bias. These results along with those from impression ratings suggested that salience of member desirability interacted with group size. It is argued that illusory correlation and group cognition studies may well take these effects into consideration.