Transcription
There's nothing like the finish line at the end of a marathon, or maybe a 10-miler, or a 5k. You've been running for a long time and you might be sore, but everyone's cheering you on. That extra encouragement gives even the most exhausted runners a little boost they need to run a little bit faster and complete the race.
Social psychologists back in the 1800s took notice of this phenomenon. They wanted to know if people actually performed better whenever they were in front of an audience or with other people. Are you likely to shave off a few minutes of your time when you're running with other people? The answers and the studies that followed built something called social facilitation theory.
Social facilitation theory is not the same theory it was back in the 1800s, but it's one of the oldest theories in the world of social psychology. This video is all about social facilitation theory, what it means, and how you can actually use it to perform better.
Let's start with some of the earliest studies. In the 1800s, a social psychologist named Norman Triplett observed that cyclists performed better whenever they were in a group, as opposed to cycling alone. He then decided to test out his theory on social facilitation in the lab. Experts believe that this could be the first social psychology experiment in the history of the study.
The study asked children to wind up some fishing line. It's a pretty simple task. Some children worked alone, while others completed the task in front of another child. Triplett observed that the children who were in the presence of others actually worked faster. At the time, Triplett did not label this phenomenon social facilitation. The label came over 30 years later, in the 1920s.
As research continued, psychologists discovered that it doesn't just help someone to perform a task while someone else is doing the same task. Whether they are in the presence of a co-actor or an audience, the person is generally likely to perform better.
Now, it would be remiss to cite an example from the 1800s and leave things at that. The way we conducted experiments two centuries ago are vastly different from the way that we conduct experiments now. As psychologists continue to test and then re-test their theories, they often find conflicting evidence. Now, this actually happened with social facilitation studies. It took over 40 years for a social facilitation study to challenge what we know about this phenomenon.
In 1933, a psychologist named Joseph Pessin gave participants a list of words to memorize. Some completed the task in a group, while others did it alone. Now, if social facilitation theory were to kick in, people in the group would be able to recite more of the words that they had memorized, right? However, that's not what happened. The people who performed the task in a group actually did significantly worse than the people who were alone. The study went against the idea of social facilitation theory. But what does this mean for the work that Norman Triplett and other psychologists put into this idea?
Now let's talk a little bit about activation theory in regards to how it works with social facilitation, because these two theories were eventually put together by psychologists like James Michaels and Robert Zajonc. These two psychologists worked separately, but together they helped to form activation theory within the social facilitation phenomenon. Throughout their experiments, they found that the difficulty of the task influenced whether or not social facilitation took place.
Here's where it gets interesting: If the task was easy, or if the participants were skilled in the task, they then performed better in the presence of others. This phenomenon is still known as social facilitation. On the other hand, though, if the task was difficult, or maybe the people were unskilled in that task, they were then more likely to perform better whenever they were alone. Adding other people to the mix set them up to perform worse. This is actually known as social inhibition. Both social facilitation and social inhibition are discussed together under the general umbrella of social facilitation theory. I know it's a lot of words, but hopefully I can clear it up for you.
Let's talk a little bit more about other factors that may influence performance, because simply the presence of other people may not be enough to help you perform significantly better on a task. Psychologists have other theories about what motivates us, what influences us, and what actually helps us perform better. One idea is that the pressure of performing well for others affects our performance. If you've ever been scared to give a speech in front of an audience, you know exactly the type of pressure I'm talking about. For others, this type of pressure can actually be a good thing if you're skilled in public speaking.
Now, the people in the audience may also have an influence on our performance. Statistically, teams win more games whenever they're playing at home. A theory is that one of these reasons they perform better is because they know and they appreciate more of the fans in the stands. Now, of course, the familiarity of the locker room and being close to family could also help players relax or focus more on the game.
And lastly, in this video, I want to touch a little bit on how you can use the social facilitation theory to help you succeed, because there isn't one just recipe for success, but social facilitation theory helps us point us in the right direction. If you have a goal, try to experiment with the ways that co-actors or maybe an audience can help you get there. You could do something like join a running club or a bicycle club. If you've been practicing guitar, maybe you can sign up to perform at an open mic night. I highly recommend using an accountability buddy to keep you on track. Bringing other people into your journey can help you perform better and reach your goals sooner.
On the other hand, though, if you don't tend to perform well in front of others, it might just mean that you have to practice alone more. You're not bad at the task, you just need to build up your skills and be more comfortable so that you can then start to perform in front of others and hopefully perform better.
Thank you guys for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it and learned a little bit more about social facilitation and social inhibition. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below, or you can check out the rest of my videos in the social psychology playlist. I'll see you in the next one.