Close

Social facilitation is a psychological concept relating to the tendency for the presence of others to improve a person’s performance on a task. While this might seem like a straightforward definition, it is actually a very complex concept with many nuances.

It also has a long history, which includes the development of a variety of theories to help explain the phenomenon in greater depth. To better understand the extent of this history and the layers of complexity, it’s critical to learn about the theories, related concepts, and implications.

Definition of Social Facilitation

Two types of social facilitation have also been defined: co-action effects and audience effects:

In addition, social facilitation is thought to involve three factors: physiological factors (drive and arousal), cognitive factors (distraction and attention), and affective factors (anxiety and self-presentation).

History of Social Facilitation

This wasn’t the first time that research revealed conflicting results related to social facilitation. To deal with these conflicting findings, Zajonc and Sales proposed in 1966 that the “dominant response” was the explanatory factor.

They argued that for tasks that come more naturally (the so-called dominant response), performance would be facilitated or improved.

But, for complex tasks where that dominant response had not been learned, performance could be impaired.

Examples of Social Facilitation

What are some examples of social facilitation in action? You’ve probably experienced some of these in your own life or witnessed them among people you know or those in the public sphere. Some examples include the following:

Social facilitation is related to several other concepts including the Yerkes-Dodson Law and Social Loafing.

Yerkes-Dodson law

TheYerkes-Dodson lawrelates to the theory that performance will vary depending on how easy/difficult a task is (or how familiar you are with a task). In other words, for tasks that you know very well and that you have rehearsed, your performance will be enhanced. On the other hand, for tasks that are complex or for which you have no “dominant response,” your performance will be lower. If plotted on a graph, this is thought to like like an “upside down U.”

As an example, consider that if you have studied well for an exam, your performance might be better in a testing situation because your alertness increases (your focus) and you work more quickly and with greater precision than when you are just testing yourself at home.

In contrast, imagine a situation in which you’ve barely studied at all for a test. All of a sudden, you are in a high-pressure situation needing to remember facts that you have little grasp of. This adds to your cognitive load, making your performance even worse than it might have been if you were just testing yourself at home.

Social Loafing

Social loafingis a related but different concept from social facilitation. Social loafing refers to the idea that when a group of people is working together on a task, and no one individual is likely to be the focus (of success or failure), then performance might be decreased overall. This is thought to result because each individual person feels lower responsibility for the outcome.

Theories on Social Facilitation

We’ve already touched on the various theories of social facilitation, but we can review these again here all in one place.

Activation Theory

Alertness Hypothesis

Related to the Activation Theory is the Alertness Hypothesis, which proposes that you become more alert when you have observers and therefore perform better.

Evaluation Apprehension Hypothesis

The Evaluation Apprehension Hypothesis (or Evaluation Approach) posits that it is theevaluation of othersthat matters rather than just their mere presence.

Self Presentation Theory

Self Presentation Theory asserts that people are motivated to make good impressions with others andmaintain a positive self image. In other words, your performance will only improve when you feel like the audience is evaluating you.

Social Orientation Theory

This theory asserts that people with a positive orientation to social situations will experience social facilitation, whereas those with a negative orientation will experience impairment.

Feedback Loop Model

Capacity Model

The Capacity Model refers to the idea that you have a limited capacity in terms of yourworking memoryand that influences how tasks are affected. Those that require less working memory (easy tasks) are enhanced, while those that require more working memory (hard tasks) are done more poorly.

Research on Social Facilitation

What about recent research on social facilitation?

In a 2002 meta analysisthree conclusions were drawn. First, it was determined that the presence of others only increased arousal when completing a complex task. Second, the presence of others increased speed of performance for a simple task, but decreased it for a complex task. Finally, it was shown that social facilitation effects did not relate to evaluation apprehension.

Later, in 2012, Murayama and Elliotshowed in another meta-analysis that performance goals were more important in terms of effects on performance than was the effect of competition with other people.

Influencing Factors

What factors influence social facilitation? We’ve already considered many of these, but let’s create a summary as a reminder:

Implications of Social Facilitation

What implications can we draw from social facilitation? In other words, why do you need to know about this concept or why should it be important to you?

If you think about it, understanding this concept may help you to improve your own performance on tasks.

Below are some tips on how to do that, whether you are applying it to your grades in school or performance in a sporting venue:

A Word From Verywell

The concept of social facilitation has a long history and involves a variety of interrelated ideas. The main takeaway should be that sometimes working with others (or performing for an audience) will enhance your performance, and other times it may hinder it. If you can learn the factors that influence those outcomes, you can put social facilitation to work for you in all situations.

Motivation: The Driving Force Behind Our Actions

5 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Triplett N.The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition.The American Journal of Psychology. 1898;9(4):507. doi:10.2307/1412188Zajonc RB, Sales SM.Social facilitation of dominant and subordinate responses.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1966;2(2):160-168. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(66)90077-1Carver CS, Scheier MF.The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1981;17(6):545-568. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(81)90039-1Rafaeli S, Noy A.Online auctions, messaging, communication and social facilitation: a simulation and experimental evidence.European Journal of Information Systems. 2002;11(3):196-207. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000434Murayama K, Elliot AJ.The competition-performance relation: a meta-analytic review and test of the opposing processes model of competition and performance.Psychological Bulletin. 2012;138(6):1035-1070. doi:10.1037/a0028324Additional ReadingLiu N, Yu R.Influence of social presence on eye movements in visual search tasks.Ergonomics. 2017;60(12):1667-1681. doi:10.1080/00140139.2017.1342870Ukezono M, Nakashima SF, Sudo R, Yamazaki A, Takano Y.The combination of perception of other individuals and exogenous manipulation of arousal enhances social facilitation as an aftereffect: Re-examination of Zajonc’s drive theory.Front Psychol. 2015;6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00601Yu R, Wu X.Working alone or in the presence of others: Exploring social facilitation in baggage X-ray security screening tasks.Ergonomics. 2015;58(6):857-865. doi:10.1080/00140139.2014.993429

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Triplett N.The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition.The American Journal of Psychology. 1898;9(4):507. doi:10.2307/1412188Zajonc RB, Sales SM.Social facilitation of dominant and subordinate responses.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1966;2(2):160-168. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(66)90077-1Carver CS, Scheier MF.The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1981;17(6):545-568. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(81)90039-1Rafaeli S, Noy A.Online auctions, messaging, communication and social facilitation: a simulation and experimental evidence.European Journal of Information Systems. 2002;11(3):196-207. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000434Murayama K, Elliot AJ.The competition-performance relation: a meta-analytic review and test of the opposing processes model of competition and performance.Psychological Bulletin. 2012;138(6):1035-1070. doi:10.1037/a0028324Additional ReadingLiu N, Yu R.Influence of social presence on eye movements in visual search tasks.Ergonomics. 2017;60(12):1667-1681. doi:10.1080/00140139.2017.1342870Ukezono M, Nakashima SF, Sudo R, Yamazaki A, Takano Y.The combination of perception of other individuals and exogenous manipulation of arousal enhances social facilitation as an aftereffect: Re-examination of Zajonc’s drive theory.Front Psychol. 2015;6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00601Yu R, Wu X.Working alone or in the presence of others: Exploring social facilitation in baggage X-ray security screening tasks.Ergonomics. 2015;58(6):857-865. doi:10.1080/00140139.2014.993429

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Triplett N.The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition.The American Journal of Psychology. 1898;9(4):507. doi:10.2307/1412188Zajonc RB, Sales SM.Social facilitation of dominant and subordinate responses.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1966;2(2):160-168. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(66)90077-1Carver CS, Scheier MF.The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1981;17(6):545-568. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(81)90039-1Rafaeli S, Noy A.Online auctions, messaging, communication and social facilitation: a simulation and experimental evidence.European Journal of Information Systems. 2002;11(3):196-207. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000434Murayama K, Elliot AJ.The competition-performance relation: a meta-analytic review and test of the opposing processes model of competition and performance.Psychological Bulletin. 2012;138(6):1035-1070. doi:10.1037/a0028324

Triplett N.The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition.The American Journal of Psychology. 1898;9(4):507. doi:10.2307/1412188

Zajonc RB, Sales SM.Social facilitation of dominant and subordinate responses.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1966;2(2):160-168. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(66)90077-1

Carver CS, Scheier MF.The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1981;17(6):545-568. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(81)90039-1

Rafaeli S, Noy A.Online auctions, messaging, communication and social facilitation: a simulation and experimental evidence.European Journal of Information Systems. 2002;11(3):196-207. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000434

Murayama K, Elliot AJ.The competition-performance relation: a meta-analytic review and test of the opposing processes model of competition and performance.Psychological Bulletin. 2012;138(6):1035-1070. doi:10.1037/a0028324

Liu N, Yu R.Influence of social presence on eye movements in visual search tasks.Ergonomics. 2017;60(12):1667-1681. doi:10.1080/00140139.2017.1342870Ukezono M, Nakashima SF, Sudo R, Yamazaki A, Takano Y.The combination of perception of other individuals and exogenous manipulation of arousal enhances social facilitation as an aftereffect: Re-examination of Zajonc’s drive theory.Front Psychol. 2015;6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00601Yu R, Wu X.Working alone or in the presence of others: Exploring social facilitation in baggage X-ray security screening tasks.Ergonomics. 2015;58(6):857-865. doi:10.1080/00140139.2014.993429

Liu N, Yu R.Influence of social presence on eye movements in visual search tasks.Ergonomics. 2017;60(12):1667-1681. doi:10.1080/00140139.2017.1342870

Ukezono M, Nakashima SF, Sudo R, Yamazaki A, Takano Y.The combination of perception of other individuals and exogenous manipulation of arousal enhances social facilitation as an aftereffect: Re-examination of Zajonc’s drive theory.Front Psychol. 2015;6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00601

Yu R, Wu X.Working alone or in the presence of others: Exploring social facilitation in baggage X-ray security screening tasks.Ergonomics. 2015;58(6):857-865. doi:10.1080/00140139.2014.993429

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?