Does presence of others affect our performance?

Social Loafing

when we are in a group, your performance level goes down contribution reduces when in group

sorta more people dilute

reduction in motivation and effort when in a group found in groups where additive tasks; all members’ work is seen cumulatively; (the whole group contributes towards one thing or they share the same task) inequal distribution of effort

Ways to Reduce:

  1. Delegate tasks, clearly defined roles, division of labour
  2. Present the task to the right person; based on their interests, their specializations, etc
  3. Accountability
  4. Prior information about all this should be provided
  5. increase the importance of the task (by placing values)
  6. Increase group members involvement either by pressure or motivation; morale
  7. Set standards that they have to meet; helps them compare; criteria helps more than an abstraction, reference

Social Facilitiation

when people are present, performance is increased.

Drive Theory of Social Facilitiation

cockroach experiment dominant responses → will be better recessive responses → will be worse


Zajonc (?) Albert Bandura

cockroach experiment - they had to go through a maze cockroaches watched by other did better than cockroaches who weren’t watched by

tokyo olympics (??) women performed better than usual in absence of men performed worse in absence

hawkthorne effect