The role of evaluation in eliminating social loafing
Harkins and Jackson ran a brainstorming task in four-person groups and varied whether members' performances could be compared with their co-workers' performances. Crossed with this, each participant's output was either individually identifiable or pooled. Identifiable outputs produced more ideas, replicating earlier social loafing findings, but only when participants believed their outputs could be evaluated against others. When outputs were not comparable, identifiability made no difference. The authors concluded that eliminating social loafing requires both identifiable output and the possibility of evaluation by comparison with co-workers.
Harkins and Jackson ran a brainstorming task in four-person groups and varied whether members' performances could be compared with their co-workers' performances. Crossed with this, each participant's output was either individually identifiable or pooled. Identifiable outputs produced more ideas, replicating earlier social loafing findings, but only when participants believed their outputs could be evaluated against others. When outputs were not comparable, identifiability made no difference. The authors concluded that eliminating social loafing requires both identifiable output and the possibility of evaluation by comparison with co-workers.
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Harkins, S. G., & Jackson, J. M. (1985). The role of evaluation in eliminating social loafing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11(4), 457-465. doi:10.1177/0146167285114011 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167285114011