Social loafing refers to reduced individual effort when working in a group compared to working alone. In a classic rope pulling study, individual performance decreased as group size increased, demonstrating the Ringlemann Effect. There are several theories for why social loafing occurs, including that working in a group diffuses social influence, reduces arousal for simple tasks, and makes individual efforts feel dispensable to the group product. Evaluation of individual contributions and establishing performance standards can help reduce social loafing.

1. Social Loafing (1979)

2. Definition:
 “Social loafing refers to the reduced efforts of individuals
who act as part of a group rather than alone” (Latene et
al., 1979, cited by Chang, 2008, p.3)
 Individuals within a group put less than 100% effort
because of a lack of motivation.

3. Example
 Ringlemann Effect: Rope pulling study…as the number of
group members increased, performance of individuals
decreased.

4. Theory's
 Social Impact Theory: suggests that when individuals
work collectively, social influence is diffused across group
members, and each additional group member has less
influence as group size increases.
 Arousal Reduction: follows a drive, which suggests that
working collectively reduces arousal, thereby reducing
performance on simple tasks but enhancing performance on
complex tasks.
 Evaluation Approaches: suggest that evaluation may
eliminate social loafing if the participants inputs are
identifiable and if there is a standard with which these
inputs can be compared.
 Dispensability Of Effort: suggests that working
collectively reduces effort because people feel their input is
not essential to a quality group product.
(Gill and Lavon, 2008, p. 247)

5. References
Chang, Y., (2008), Social loafing and moral emotions: The
Janus-headed aspect of moral identity, Deleware: University
of Deleware
Weinberg, R., Gould, D., (2007), Foundations of Sport and
Exercise Psychology, 4th edition, Leeds: Human Kinetics
Gill, D., Williams, L., (2008), Psychological Dynamics of
Sport and Exercise, 3rd edition, Leeds: Human Kinetics