Social facilitation: A meta-analysis of 241 studies

Abstract

Reports a meta-analysis of the effects of the presence of others on human task performance and physiology. In 241 studies involving nearly 24,000 Ss, the presence of others had small effects, accounting for .3% to 3% of the variance in the typical experiment. It is concluded that (a) the presence of others heightens an individual's physiological arousal only if the individual is performing a complex task; (b) the presence of others increases the speed of simple task performance and decreases the speed of complex task performance; (c) the presence of others impairs complex performance accuracy and slightly facilitates simple performance accuracy, although the facilitation is vulnerable to the "file drawer problem" of unreported null results; and (d) social facilitation effects are surprisingly unrelated to the performer's evaluation apprehension. These meta-analytic conclusions are contrasted with conclusions reached by narrative literature reviews, and implications for theories of social facilitation are discussed. A list of the studies analyzed is appended. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).