In Search of Virtual Social Facilitation Effects

Abstract

The social facilitation effect is a well-researched phenomenon in social psychology that has recently been reproduced through the use of virtual humans. This finding provides opportunities to increase certain human behaviors remotely, which could be crucial in behavior modification. The purpose of the current study was to replicate these findings. Through three manipulations aimed at mimicking this social facilitation effect demonstrated in previous research, no significant effects on performance could be replicated. This suggests that this social psychology principle may not be applicable in a human-machine interaction paradigm.