What is social loafing?

1. What is social loafing? • Social influence - Lesson 4 • Unit 2 - Understanding other people.

2. Lesson Objectives You should be able to; • Understand what is meant by social loafing. • Describe various factors that affect social loafing. • Describe and evaluate studies of social loafing.

3. Starter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJ79kAFVho How many people, by show of hands, when working in groups don’t put 100% effort in because there are other people in the group?

4. Social loafing Social loafing can be describe as; Putting less effort into doing something when you are with others doing the same thing. This means that you put in less effort in tasks when working in groups than you would if you were doing the same task on your own.

5. Activity On the A3 paper with the boxes draw on it, colour in the boxes. Start the stop watch can time your self.

6. Get into groups of 4. • Colour in the boxes on you sheet. • How long does it take a group?

7. Get into groups of 4. • Colour in the boxes on you sheet. • How long does it take a group? • It should take ¼ of the time it took one person to colour in the 4 boxes. If social loafing occurred it took longer than that because they aren’t putting as much effort in.

8. Latane et al. (1979) They tried to see if whether being in a group effects how much effort people put into tasks. They asked that 84 participants to shout and clap as loudly as they could while alone or in a group of 6. Each participant was given headphones so they couldn’t hear the others. They found that the larger the group the less noise produced. They concluded that people put less effort into doing something when they know others are contributing.

9. Earley (1989) Investigated to see if a culture (a group of people, usually living in one place who have the same beliefs, customs and behaviour) makes a difference to social loafing. He used participants from China and the USA. They had to complete tasks alone and in groups. The level of social loafing was measured by how much effort was put into the task in each condition by each participant. The American participants reduced the amount of effort they put in to group tasks, the Chinese didn’t. Social loafing doesn’t exist in all cultures.

10. Evaluation • Latane’s participants were all from the same culture. • Latane suggested that identification of an individuals role/effort in the group eliminates social loafing. • Some cultures are concerned about welfare of the group i.e. value family, colleagues, country. • Earley only compared 2 cultures, others may have behaved differently again. • Most practicals take place in a lab – Lacks ecological validity.

11. Factors that affect social loafing Size of the group. Nature of the task. Culture you belong to.

12. Plenary Look at each of the examples below and state whether its an example of social loafing, obedience or conformity.