Identifiability as a deterrant to social loafing: Two cheering experiments.

Two experiments tested the extent to which the identifiability of one's individual output moderates social loafing—the reduction of individual efforts due to the social presence of others. In the first stage of Experiment 1, participants were asked to produce noise either alone, in groups of two and six, or in pseudogroups where the individuals actually shouted alone but believed that one or five other people were shouting with them. As in previous research, people exerted less effort when they thought that they were shouting in groups than when they shouted alone. In the second stage, the same people were led to believe that their outputs would be identifiable even when they cheered in groups. This manipulation eliminated social loafing. Experiment 2 demonstrated that when individual outputs are always identifiable (even in groups), people consistently exert high levels of effort, and if their outputs are never identifiable (even when alone), they consistently exert low levels of effort across all group sizes. In concert, these studies suggest that identifiability is an important mediator of social loafing.