Boundaries Around Group Interaction: A Meta-Analytic Integration of the Effects of Group Size

Abstract We report a meta-analytic integration that summarizes American research by psychologists on the effects of group size on the permeability of group boundaries. Results indicate that the tendency for larger groups to have less permeable boundaries is highly significant but of small magnitude. This impermeability generally increases as a function of the relative size of the larger group and decreases as a function of the interpersonal distance between members of the group. However, the tendency to skirt around the boundary of a larger group was significantly greater when real behavior in real group settings was measured as compared with when paper-and-pencil measures were obtained in imaginary group settings. Moreover, impermeability was greater for real groups when group members stood closer together, whereas it was greater for imaginary groups when they stood farther apart.