Blackwell Reference Online

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The mere presence of others can significantly enhance our performance. Social psychologists have termed this social facilitation. Working with others doing the same simple task on a production line produces better performance than working alone. The presence of others also inhibits performance, as in the case of public speaking, through a process called social inhibition. It is clear from many studies that on simple tasks performance is facilitated by the presence of others but on more difficult tasks it is impaired. Three principal explanations have been offered for these effects. Zajonc (1965) demonstrated that the presence of others increases arousal in many species (including ants, chickens, cockroaches, fish, fruit flies, monkeys, and humans) and this arousal may facilitate greater effort and therefore effectiveness in task performance. The second explanation proposes that the presence of others is cognitively distracting on complex tasks and leads to performance decrement. A third suggests that evaluation apprehension may interfere with complex task performance. This research implies that open plan offices will hinder performance when tasks are complex but that on simple tasks, such as call center or assembly line work, the presence of others will facilitate performance. As in most areas of research in social psychology, our understanding of social facilitation would deepen ... log in or subscribe to read full text