Because learning changes everything.

Module 18
Social Loafing: Many Hands
Make Diminished
Responsibility

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 GROUP ASSETS

• MORE KNOWLEDGE
• MULTIPLE APPROACHES
• ACCEPTANCE BY MEMBERS
• BETTER UNDERSTANDING

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 GROUP LIABILITIES

• EXCESSIVE CONFORMITY
• AGREEMENT MORE IMPORTANT THAN
ANSWER
• DOMINANT INDIVIDUAL CAN NEGATE
• EXCESSIVE COMMUNICATION-winning each
point more important

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 Dominant Individuals tend to..

• Inhibit discussion
• Short-cut diagnosis
• Hinder disagreement
• Reduce creativity
• Curtail contributions of some members

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 Individual vs. Group

Compared to individuals, groups tend to be..

• Slower than most individuals
• Less accurate than the best individual
• More accurate than most individuals

The best individuals are usually better than groups as to accuracy, speed
and efficiency
The average individual is faster than most groups, but makes more
errors
Groups are more accurate but slower than most individuals

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 Many Hands Make Light Work

Social loafing.
• Tendency for people to exert less effort when they pool their efforts
toward a common goal than when they are individually accountable.

Free riders.
• People who benefit from the group but give little in return. In
economics, refers to someone who benefits from resources, goods, or
services without paying for the cost of the benefit.

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 Nature of Task

A unitary task cannot be divided into separate subtasks—all members

work together doing the same thing and no division of labor is possible.

In an additive task, group success depends on the sum of the individual

efforts, rather than on the performance of any subset of members.

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 Figure 18.1: Social Facilitation or Social Loafing?

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Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 What makes people to loaf?

People expect each other to loaf. Whether consciously or

unconsciously people say to themselves: everyone else is going to slack
off a bit so I’ll slack off a bit as well because it’s not fair if I do more work
than the others.
Anonymity. When groups are larger the individuals become more
anonymous. Imagine you’re doing something on your own: if it goes well
you get all the glory, if it goes wrong you get all the blame. In a group
both blame and glory is spread, so there’s less carrot and less stick.
No standards. Often groups don’t have set standards so there’s no clear
ideal for which to aim.

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 How to reduce loafing?

Task importance. Studies have shown that when people think the task is
important they do less loafing. Zacarro (1984) found that groups
constructing ‘moon tents’ (don’t ask me!) worked harder if they thought
the relevance of the task was high, thought they were in competition with
another group and were encouraged to think the task was attractive.
Group importance. When the group is important to its members they
work harder. Worchel et al. (1998) had people building paper chains in
two groups, one which had name tags, matching coats and a sense of
competition. Compared to a group given none of these, they produced 5
more paper chains.
Decreasing the ‘sucker effect’. The sucker effect is that feeling of being
duped when you think that other people in the group are slacking off.
Reducing or eliminating this perception is another key to a productive
group.

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 Social Loafing in Everyday Life 1

• Social loafing is found in varied cultures and appears in donations of

money and time.
• People in groups loaf less when the task is challenging, appealing, or
involving.
• Groups loaf less when their members are friends or they feel identified
with or indispensable to their group.

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 Social Loafing in Everyday Life 2
Group members work hard when they:
• Are given challenging objectives.
• Are rewarded for group success.
• Have a spirit of commitment to the team.

People in groups loaf less when…

• The task is challenging

• The task is appealing

• The task is involving

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 End of Main Content

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