Social facilitation

Social facilitation is a phenomenon in social psychology that relates to how the presence of others may increase a person’s efforts and efficiency in a given task. The idea was first published in 1898 by psychologist Norman Triplett, who noted that bicyclists riding in groups tend to ride faster than bicyclists riding alone. Later researchers examined inconsistencies in Triplett’s findings and appended the concept of social inhibition, the phenomenon in which people in groups fare more poorly in difficult or unfamiliar tasks.

Background

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior of humans and in its purest form mainly focuses on individuals. The branch of psychological study that focuses on how social life can affect people’s beliefs, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors is known as social psychology. Social psychologists research such situations as how people feel or act when they are alone versus when they are with close friends, family members, strangers, or large crowds.

Social psychology can be traced back nearly as far as psychology itself, and some of its first major theories appeared in the works of ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Plato felt that communities and governments pressured people to behave socially, while Aristotle posited that people have a natural drive to be sociable. Both philosophers agreed that an individual’s mental, emotional, and behavioral functions could change markedly due to the presences of others.

In more modern times, philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Moritz Lazarus, and Heymann Steinthal further elaborated on the extensive impact of society on individual psychology and vice versa. In the 1700s and 1800s, these and other philosophers outlined the theory of the collective mind in which a variety of social, cultural, and linguistic forces mold individuals’ social thoughts and behaviors.

The study of how people may help, hinder, or otherwise affect each other’s actions, feelings, and behaviors only increased in the twentieth century and beyond. Many new theories appeared to help explain the complex interplay between a society and the people within it. Some of these theories related to social influence include self-concept, aggression, discrimination, perceptions of society, and the small but important theory known as social facilitation.

Overview

Social facilitation refers to a phenomenon in which people may tend to work more efficiently and effectively when they are near, or being observed by, other people. The study of social facilitation has uncovered many aspects of this phenomenon as well as many cases in which it does not occur as expected. Psychologists continue to mull the question into the twenty-first century, more than a century since it was first proposed.

The idea of social facilitation can be traced to a social psychologist named Norman Triplett. Around 1898, Triplett, an avid bicyclist, made an unusual observation. He noticed that many fellow bicyclists tended to ride at a faster pace when they were in groups, but at a more relaxed pace when they were riding alone. Triplett examined bicycle race records that confirmed his observation. During stretches of races with many riders, riders tended to go faster. In stretches where riders were still competing but could not see other riders, their speeds waned.

Triplett published this finding as well as the results of a test during which he asked young subjects to spin a reel as fast as they could. When the subjects were in the same room, they tended to spin the reel more quickly. When the subjects were alone, their speeds were generally lessened. However, Triplett admitted that his findings were inconsistent. Some subjects worked at a fast pace during all aspects of the experiment, while others were actually slower when they were among fellow subjects.

The study clearly needed further refinement. Later researchers picked up Triplett’s ideas and further elaborated on them. Researcher Floyd Allport named the phenomenon “social facilitation” in 1920, even though his findings also turned up curious inconsistencies. A possible answer to the mystery arose in 1965 in the work of psychologist Robert Zajonc. He studied earlier social facilitation experiments and noted that the social facilitation phenomenon seemed clearer among subjects who were better accustomed to the task at hand.

Zajonc used his findings to revise the social facilitation theory. He integrated another psychological concept, the dominant response, to social facilitation. Dominant response refers to the most natural way that a person would act (or react) in a given situation. In most common and familiar situations, such as a bicyclist riding in a race, seeing other people causes the dominant response to strengthen. In the example, the bicyclist naturally begins riding as quickly as possible.

However, heightening of the dominant response can have a downside, particularly in unfamiliar or challenging situations. A person’s dominant response is frequently not the best way to approach tough situations. Therefore, when the dominant response is activated by the presence of other people, it often proves to be unhelpful. The subject may try very hard to work efficiently but the dominant response is insufficient, and ultimately the subject’s activities prove less effective. This response may contribute to common troubles dubbed “stage fright” or “performance anxiety.”

For this reason, most subjects work more efficiently on difficult or unfamiliar tasks when they are alone and can consider various options instead of becoming overly reliant on a single dominant response that might not even be appropriate. The phenomenon in which people are less effective within groups is called social inhibition, which is the opposite of social facilitation.

A concept related to social facilitation and social inhibition is social loafing. Social loafing is a psychological phenomenon in which people may work less when they are part of teams. In the team dynamic, rather than a more competitive setting, many people feel less responsible for the overall group effort and may therefore exert less effort. This is a common complaint among students and workers who are assigned to work in groups in which the level of effort and output seems highly imbalanced between members.

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