Social Compensation: Fact or Social-Comparison Artifact?

The use of coactors as non-group controls in prior social compensation research has left open the possibility that the effect might artifactually have resulted from a confound between work condition (Coaction vs. Collective) and the opportunity to make performance comparisons. A direct empirical test of this alternative, artifactual explanation is reported. Its results contradict that explanation and suggest that the use of coactors as controls has, if anything, resulted in an underestimation of the magnitude of the social compensation effect. It is argued that multiple alternative non-group performance baselines can be informative for analyzing group motivation effects.

[1]  Ido Erev,et al.  Constructive Intergroup Competition as a Solution to the Free Rider Problem: A Field Experiment , 1993 .

[2]  N. Kerr,et al.  Group sex composition and member task motivation , 1983 .

[3]  G Hertel,et al.  Motivation gains in performance groups: paradigmatic and theoretical developments on the Köhler effect. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  Guido Hertel,et al.  Knowledge of partner's ability as a moderator of group motivation gains: an exploration of the Köhler discrepancy effect. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  Steven J. Karau,et al.  Coworker ability and effort as determinants of individual effort on a collective task. , 2001 .

[6]  N. Kerr.  Motivation losses in small groups: a social dilemma analysis , 1983 .

[7]  Gardner Murphy,et al.  Experimental social psychology. , 1934 .

[8]  Joan R. Poulsen,et al.  Social ostracism and group motivation gain , 2008 .

[9]  R. Zajonc.  SOCIAL FACILITATION. , 1965, Science.

[10]  Stephen J. Zaccaro.  Social Loafing , 1984 .

[11]  E. Day,et al.  Social identity and individual productivity within groups. , 1998, The British journal of social psychology.

[12]  Kipling D. Williams,et al.  Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes Social Loafing: a Meta-analytic Review and Theoretical Integration , 2022 .

[13]  Joseph P. Forgas,et al.  Social Influence: Direct and Indirect Processes , 2001 .

[14]  Lawrence J. Sanna,et al.  Self-efficacy theory : implications for social facilitation and social loafing , 1992 .

[15]  Steven J. Karau,et al.  The effects of group cohesiveness on social loafing and social compensation. , 1997 .

[16]  S. Karau,et al.  Social loafing and social compensation: the effects of expectations of co-worker performance. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  Dorwin Cartwright,et al.  Group dynamics, 3rd ed. , 1968 .

[18]  Michael Diehl,et al.  Social Compensation and the Köhler Effect: Toward a Theoretical Explanation of Motivation Gains in Group Productivity , 2018, Understanding Group Behavior.

[19]  S. Harkins.  Social Loafing and Social Facilitation , 1987 .

[20]  J. Shepperd.  Productivity loss in performance groups: A motivation analysis. , 1993 .

[21]  N. Kerr,et al.  Sex Composition of Groups and Member Motivation II. Effects of Relative Task Ability. , 1984 .

[22]  K. Williams,et al.  Many Hands Make Light the Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing , 1979 .