Social loafing is the tendency for people to exert less individual effort when working collectively as part of a group toward a shared goal than when working alone and individually accountable, which reduces the group's overall output relative to the sum of what its members could achieve separately. The French agricultural engineer Max Ringelmann first documented the effect in 1913 through experiments on rope-pulling, and the psychologists Bibb Latane, Kipling Williams and Stephen Harkins gave it its modern social-psychological framework and name in 1979, using clapping and shouting tasks.
Facts
Core ClaimThe more people share responsibility for a collective task, the less individual effort each of them tends to put in. 1 First Described Year Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Social Loafing
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
In social psychology, social loafing is the phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when working alone.
1. Wikipedia: Social Loafing
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, Ringelmann 1913
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