Social facilitation

Social facilitation is the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance on "simple tasks" (or tasks at which they are expert or that have become autonomous) when under the eye of others, rather than while they are alone (audience effect), or when competing against another (coactor effect). "Complex tasks" (or tasks at which people are not skilled), however, are often performed in an inferior manner in such situations. This effect has been demonstrated in a variety of species. In humans, it is strongest among those who are most concerned about the opinions of others, and when the individual is being watched by someone he or she does not know, or cannot see well.

Research

The earliest published research on social facilitation was conducted by Norman Triplett in 1898. Triplett observed that among bicycle racers, the presence of other cyclists tended to increase performance, leading to faster race times. Research on social facilitation progressed slowly over the next few decades as the presence of others seemed to increase performance in some situations, and decrease it in other situations.

In 1965, Robert Zajonc breathed new life into social facilitation research by accounting for the previously unexplained dual nature of the phenomenon. According to Zajonc, the presence of others serves as a source of arousal. Arousal increases the likelihood of an organism making habitual or well learned responses. This improves performance at simple tasks and impairs performance at complex or difficult tasks (see Yerkes-Dodson Law). Zajonc demonstrated this effect in several different species, including laboratory rats and cockroaches.

More recently, Baron (1986) proposed an alternative view of social facilitation, one that is based on attention and distraction. He suggested that task performance is dependent upon the number of cues or distractions present in the situation. Today, most social psychologists believe that social facilitation in humans is influenced by both arousal (as in Zajonc's theory) and cognitive processes (such as distraction, and also evaluation apprehension).

Related concepts

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to slack in a group when work is pooled and individual performance is not being evaluated. A good example of social facilitation is a foot race (where the individual runs faster when there are other runners) as opposed to a group tug-of-war (where the work is pooled, and an individual's lack of performance is hard to notice).

References

* Baron, R. A. (1986). Distraction-conflict theory: Progress and problems. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), "Advances in Experimental Social Psychology" (Vol. 19). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
* Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition. "American Journal of Psychology", "9", 507-533.
* Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social facilitation. "Science", 149, 269-274.

ee also

*Arousal
*Audience effect ("in subjects ranging from cockroaches to humans")
*Social loafing
*Social psychology
*Yerkes-Dodson law