The physical presence of other individuals as a factor in social facilitation

The purposes of the present study were (1) to establish whether or not the physical presence of other individuals is a necessary condition for the occurrence of social facilitation in humans and (2) to examine the drive hypothesis of social facilitation using female Ss. Ss learned competitive or noncompetitive lists of paired associates while alone or while observed from behind a one-way screen. Analysis of the competitive list data suggested that dominant responses were enhanced at the expense of subordinate responses when Ss were observed through a one-way screen. No affect attributable to observation was found in the noncompetitive list data.