Review of Related Literature

It has been attested in many experiments that social facilitation occurs when individuals
work at task in each others presence. The problem has been studied mainly from the point of
view of varying the nature of the task or the conditions under which the task is performed, alone
or in a group. (Abel, 1938)
Simple motor responses are particularly sensitive to social facilitation effects. In 1925
Travis 2 obtained such effects in a study in which he used the pursuit-rotor task. In this task the
subject is required to follow a small revolving target by means of a stylus which he holds in his
hand. If the stylus is even momentarily off target during a revolution, the revolution counts as an
error. First each subject was trained for several consecutive days until his performance reached a
stable level. One day after the conclusion of the training the subject was called to the laboratory,
given five trials alone and ten trials in the presence from four to eight upperclassmen and
graduate students. They had been asked by the experimenter to watch the subject quietly and
attentively. Travis found a clear improvement in performance when his subjects were confronted
with an audience. Their accuracy on the ten trials before an audience was greater than on any ten
previous trials, including those on which they had scored highest. (Zanjonc, 1965)
Social Facilitation studies show that the presence of other organisms, as cofactors or as
spectators, enhances performance on such tasks as multiplication, chain association, pursuit
rotor, signal detection, etc. Some studies, however, seem to show that the presence of other
organisms has detrimental effects. (Sales, 1966)

Historical accounts of social psychology credit Triplett with the first social psychology
experiment. His exploration and labeling of social facilitation phenomena gave rise to an
enduring theoretical puzzle that attracted many researchers. Generally, Social facilitation refers
to performance enhancement and impairment effects endangered by the presence of others either
as cofactors or more typically audience. (Blascovich Jim, 1999)
Social Facilitation theory deals with the impact of social presence on individual
performance. It is one of the oldest social psychology theories in the history of the field. The
theory focuses on changes in performance that occur when individuals perform in the presence of
others versus alone. The term facilitation refers to the early observations that performance was
enhanced when others were present. Subsequent research has found the relationship between
social presence and individual performance. Task Complexity, evaluation context, and type of
presence are some factors that researchers have demonstrated moderate the impact of presence
on performance. Social facilitation theory now refers not only to performance enhancements, but
also to impairments. (Douthitt, 2001)
Social facilitation research is based on the notion that the presence of
an audience of one or more spectators can facilitate performance. This is
an appealing concept, since almost everyone has experienced the desire to perform better when
friends, family, or members of the opposite gender are watching. Research in
the area of social facilitation was significantly influenced by the work of Robert Zajonc
(pronounced "science").
Zajonc's classical paper on the topic remains the single most critical factor in the
development of social facilitation as a field of inquiry. Zajonc proposed that the presence of

an audience has the effect

of increasing (drive) in performing subjects. Since increased arousal facilitates the elicitation of
the dominant response, the presence of an audience will enhance the performance of a skilled
individual while causing a decrement in the performance of an unskilled individual. (Richard,
2002)
Social facilitation represents a process in which people's performance varies depending
on whether or not they are in the presence of others. Zajonc (1965) describes the effects of social
facilitation by distinguishing how people perform dominant (i.e., tasks that are familiar, simple
or well learned) and non-dominant (i.e., tasks that are unfamiliar, complex or novel) responses in
the absence or presence of others. (Henningsen, 2009)
Social facilitation can be defined as an improvement in performance produced by the
mere presence of others. There are two types of social facilitation: co-action effects and
audience effect. Studies on social facilitation concern the extent to which a given piece of an
individual's behavior is affected by the real, imagined or implied presence of others. Perhaps the
first social psychology laboratory experiment was undertaken in this area by Norman Triplett in
1898. In his research on the speed records of cyclists, he noticed that racing against each other
rather than against the clock alone increased the cyclists' speeds. He attempted to duplicate this
under laboratory conditions using children and fishing reels. There were two conditions: the
child alone and children in pairs but working alone. Their task was to wind in a given amount of
fishing line and Triplett reports that many children worked faster in the presence of a partner
doing the same task. (Mcleod, 2011)

According to Zajonc, The presence of others acts a source of arousal in what is called
social facilitation effect. This theory proposes that on easy tasks the presence of others should
facilitate performance, whereas on difficult tasks they should inhibit performance. (Kotzer,
2007)
The power of the presence of others to produce social facilitation and interference
effects cannot be completely specified by these very obvious factors alone, however. An
individuals performance may be affected even though the factors and processes commonly
associated with the presence of others (such giving cues, delivering reinforcement, or lending
help) are eliminated. This study examined the mere presence of others on behavior when the
evaluative and directive properties of others presence are minimized. (Markus, 1978)
Summary for RRL
Today, there are many different theories about why social facilitation occurs.
Norman Tripplett initiated the research on the phenomenon, and many
psychologists have followed suit. Despite the large number of theories on the topic,
most social psychologists today agree that social facilitation is a result of increased
arousal, distraction, and awareness of evaluation.
As a whole, the study of social facilitation has the potential to explain why certain
people perform the way that they do. This can be applied to public speakers, sports
players, classroom performance, or really any evaluated social situation. Until now,
most of the findings have reinforced the original theories that people either perform
better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when in the presence of other
people.
Many studies have also shown that the effects are not limited to humans, but have
been displayed in other species like capuchin monkeys. As research is becoming
more extensive, the theories are starting to be applied to other cultures, adding
validity to the theory in that it is not only true for Americans and Europeans.