socialfacilitation

Social facilitation is the tendency for performance to improve on simple or well-learned tasks when others are present, while performance on more complex or novel tasks may decline. The effect is generally attributed to increased arousal in social settings, which tends to strengthen the dominant response: correct for easy tasks and incorrect for difficult ones.

Historically, the phenomenon was first described by Norman Triplett in 1898, who observed cyclists performing better in the presence of others. Robert Zajonc later proposed a theoretical framework in 1965 that emphasized mere presence of others as a key source of arousal, while also distinguishing this from evaluation apprehension, the concern about being judged, which can amplify or modulate the effect.

Mechanistically, social facilitation arises because the presence of others elevates physiological arousal, which increases the likelihood of the dominant response. For easy or well-practiced tasks, the dominant response is correct and performance improves; for difficult or novel tasks, the dominant response may be incorrect, leading to poorer performance. Evaluation apprehension and the nature of the audience—whether observers are evaluative or merely co-actors—can influence the magnitude of the effect.

Moderating factors include task complexity, individual expertise, and the characteristics of the audience or co-actors. The size and immediacy of the social presence, along with the person’s motivation and confidence, can alter outcomes. The Yerkes-Dodson law is often cited to describe an inverted-U relationship between arousal and performance, with optimal performance at moderate arousal.

Applications and related concepts appear in sports, public speaking, education, and workplace settings. Social facilitation interacts with related phenomena such as social loafing and audience effects, and observations extend to animal behavior under social presence.