1.

Social Facilitation

- Presence of other affects our performances.

Norman Triplett (1898) has come out with a test that a racer performed
better in a race compared than they were cycling alone. He also carried
out a test under laboratory conditions by using children and fishing reels.
There were two situations were when the child alone and when they are in
pairs but still working alone. Their task was to wind in a given amount of
fishing line. The result stated that many children worked faster in the
presence of a partner in doing the same task compared to when they were
working alone.

These experiments demonstrate the co-action effect, a phenomenon

whereby increased task performance comes about by the presence of
others doing the same task.

Social facilitation not only occurs in the presence of a co-actor but also in
the presence of a passive audience or spectators. This is known as the
audience effect.

Dashiell (1935) found that the presence of an audience facilitated

subjects' multiplication performance by increasing the number of simple
multiplications completed. Travis (1925) also has found that well-trained
subjects were better at a psychomotor task (pursuit rotor) in front of
spectators.

Thus, presence of other lead to facilitation where people do performed

better in a group rather than alone. The higher the number of people, the
higher of the performance level of an individual.

2. However, in Social Inhibition,

- Presence of others hindering our performances.

Pessin (1993) carried out that a participant memorised lists better alone
than in front of audiences. Thus, presence of other lead to inhibition where
the tendency for an individual to perform worse on tasks when they are in
front of others rather than when alone.

With a high level of social inhibition, situations are avoided because of the
possibility of others disapproving of their feelings or expressions. Social
inhibition mostly related to behaviour, appearance, social interactions, or
any subject matters for discussion.

But, then they came out with:

3. Mere Presence Theory

- This theory explains both Triplett and Pessins tests, by Michaels et al
(1982):

A good player sunk more balls with an audience while a bad player sunk
fewer balls with an audience.

In conclusion, Social Facilitation can be explained as the tendency for

people to perform differently when in the presence of others compared to
when they alone. They tend to perform better on simple or well-practised
tasks and worse on complicated tasks or new ones when they are in public
rather than when they are alone.