Why do we give less effort when part of a group?

Do you do this too?

When I receive an email and more than a few people are cc'd, I am far less likely to respond than if I am the only recipient.

In the same vein, when I send an email to a bunch of people asking for something, few answer. When I email each person individually, there’s an almost 100% response.?

It's so frustrating when it happens to me, yet I repeatedly participate in doing it to others!

It happens everywhere

This pattern - individual effort lessening when in a group - is consistent (but not inescapable) across multiple domains: meetings, physical effort, and joint projects. Any time there is a group with a common venture, you're likely to find it.

What is it?

Social loafing.

What is social loafing?

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to reduce their effort when they are part of a group, as compared to when they work individually.?

You'd think that being part of a group would be motivating, and sometimes it is, but the evidence points toward a reduction in effort when we enter the herd.

The Rope-Pulling Experiment of 1913

Max Ringelmann was a French agricultural engineer who spent decades teasing out how to maximize team performance. This wasn't about the boardroom or resus bay. This was about the farm.

Looking to impact farming efficiency, he originally studied power output from oxen and horses, but then he turned his eye toward humans with this question:

What happens when people work as part of a team compared to individually?

His landmark study, published in 1913, measured the individual and group power output of people tasked with pulling a heavy object with a rope.

What happened when study participants pulled by themselves (and were instructed to do so with maximum effort) compared to when as part of a larger troop??

Ringelmann discovered that each individual exerted less effort when part of a collective than when they pulled alone. Social loafing.

In another study, Ringlemann observed a similar phenomenon amongst prisoners turning cranks to power a flour mill, noting,

“..after only a little while, each man, trusting in his neighbor to furnish the desired effort, contented himself by merely following the movement of the crank, and sometimes even let himself be carried along by it."

Does size matter?

Something Ringlemann noted in his rope-pulling experiment was that the larger the group, the less the individual effort. In 1985, Latane et al., using cheering and clapping, had a similar finding:

“The average sound pressure generated per person decreased with increasing group size.”

In other words, as group size increased, individual effort decreased. The larger the group, the more pronounced the social loafing.

The invisibility factor?

A 1989 study by Harkins and Szymanski found that when an individual's effort in a group task is not visible or identifiable, there's a higher propensity for social loafing.?

When team members believed their contributions couldn't be singled out or evaluated independently, they were more likely to exert less effort.?

When there was accountability, social loafing disappeared.?

5 things I have learned from researching this, as well as being a social loafer myself

Are you loafing?

I know I loaf. I socially loaf like a madman.?

Check-in with yourself when part of a group. Is your approach consistent with your identity??

Do you want to show up in your social loafing leisure suit? Maybe so! Hiding in the crowd could be just fine, but it might also be selling yourself and your team/group short.?

It’s going to happen

When engaging with a group, expect social loafing among the participants and account for it in your actions.?

Something I’ve started doing when giving an invited Zoom presentation is identifying a few people who are going to act as proxies for the group. They will be who I speak with. It often opens the door for other group members to feel comfortable raising their hands.

If you’re speaking to a group who is ‘just showing up’ don’t expect them to be champing at the bit to get a question or comment in. If they do, fantastic. If they don’t, that’s expected.?

When leading a group

Be transparent about your expectations of others. Are they there to listen passively, or do you want them to contribute actively??

Accountability

This is a tricky one because forcing accountability can lead to suboptimal engagement.

A caveat to forcing accountability leading to suboptimal engagement is the tug-of-war in the Squid Games, where contestants were going to die if they didn’t give maximum individual effort.?

They were fully invested because they were all stakeholders with a sense of ownership.

Small unit cohesion?matters

Does the team have a unifying purpose make social loafing? It does, but the common belief must be authentic. Purpose is embraced, not imposed.

This episode digs deeper.?

All right, my loafing friends. I’ve got a meeting to attend where I’ll surely keep my camera off and check my email the whole time.?

References

Pulling the rope

Ringelmann, M. (1913a). Appareils de cultur mecanique avec treuils et cables (resultats d'essais) [Mechanical tilling equipment with winches and cables (results of tests)]. Annales de I'lnstitut National Agronomique, 2e serie—tome XII, 299-343.

Ringelmann, M. (1913b). Recherches sur les moteurs animes: Travail de rhomme [Research on animate sources of power: The work of man]. Annales de I'lnstitut National Agronomique, 2e serie—tome XII, 1- 40.

Full text of a detailed review of Ringlemann’s original study

Group size

Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1985). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(6), 822-832. PDF

Hiding in a group

Harkins, S. G., & Szymanski, K. (1989). Social loafing and group evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(5), 934-941.PDF