Effects of personal involvement

Thought-provoking implications for social loafing

Bibliographic Data

ID6202091
AuthorsMary A Brickner, Stephen G Harkin, Stephen G Harkins, Thomas M Ostrom
Year1986
Volume51
Issue4
Pages763-769
Publication date1986-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/0022-3514.51.4.763
OpenAlexW2151184138
LanguageEN
Citations received28
References cited9

In 1979, Latane, Williams, and Harkins observed that individuals working together put out less effort than when they work alone, an effect these researchers termed social loafing. Subsequent research (Williams, Harkins, & Latane, 1981) has suggested that this effect arises, at least in part, because when participants work with others on these tasks their individual outputs are lost in the crowd, and, thus, they can receive neither credit nor blame for their performances. However, it is unlikely that participants found the tasks used in these experiments (e.g., clapping, shouting) to be involving. The possibility that personal involvement could moderate the social loafing effect was tested in a 2 (high/ low involvement) X 2 (high/low identifiability) factorial design across three replications. Replicating previous loafing research, we found that under conditions of low involvement, participants whose outputs were identifiable worked harder than those whose outputs were pooled. However, when the task was personally involving, the loafing effect was eliminated. Participants whose outputs were pooled worked as hard as those participants whose individual outputs could be identified

Developmental psychology · Social loafing · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Psychology · Social Psychology

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