Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration
Karau and Williams carried out a meta-analysis of 78 studies of social loafing, the tendency to put in less effort when working collectively than when working individually. They conclude that social loafing is robust and generalises across tasks and populations, and that many variables moderate it, with evaluation potential, expectations about co-workers' performance, task meaningfulness and culture having especially strong influence. They interpret the findings through a collective effort model that integrates expectancy-value, social identity and self-validation theories.
Karau and Williams carried out a meta-analysis of 78 studies of social loafing, the tendency to put in less effort when working collectively than when working individually. They conclude that social loafing is robust and generalises across tasks and populations, and that many variables moderate it, with evaluation potential, expectations about co-workers' performance, task meaningfulness and culture having especially strong influence. They interpret the findings through a collective effort model that integrates expectancy-value, social identity and self-validation theories.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-27 via OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Karau, S. J., & Williams, K. D. (1993). Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(4), 681-706. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.681