Abstract
Zajonc’s drive theory postulates that arousal enhanced through the perception of the presence of other individuals plays a crucial role in social facilitation (Zajonc, 1965). Here, we conducted two experiments to examine whether the elevation of arousal through a stepping exercise performed in front of others as an exogenous factor causes social facilitation of a cognitive task in a condition where the presence of others does not elevate the arousal level. In the main experiment, as an “aftereffect of social stimulus,” we manipulated the presence or absence of others and arousal enhancement before participants conducted the primary cognitive task. The results showed that the strongest social facilitation was induced by the combination of the perception of others and arousal enhancement. In a supplementary experiment, we manipulated these factors by adding the presence of another person during the task. The results showed that the effect of the presence of the other during the primary task is enough on its own to produce facilitation of task performance regardless of the arousal enhancement as an aftereffect of social stimulus. Our study therefore extends the framework of Zajonc’s drive theory in that the combination of the perception of others and enhanced arousal as an “aftereffect” was found to induce social facilitation especially when participants did not experience the presence of others while conducting the primary task.
Highlights
Imagine you are preparing for an exam among customers in a cafe
Manipulation Assessment To assess the manipulation’s effectiveness for arousal enhancement, we calculated the amounts of change in systolic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate (HR), and self-reports by subtracting the values after the manipulation from those obtained in the baseline phase
The results showed that the amounts of change in SBP, HR, and self-reports were significantly different between conditions: SBP, F(4,105) = 18.84, p < 0.01, η2p = 0.42; HR, F(4,105) = 11.36, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.30; self-reports, F(4,105) = 14.04, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.35
Summary
Imagine you are preparing for an exam among customers in a cafe In such a situation, you may feel that you are working more efficiently than if you were working alone at home. That people tend to perform tasks more efficiently with other individuals present than when performing alone is a phenomenon generally known as “social facilitation” (Allport, 1924; Katz and Schanck, 1938). He demonstrated the phenomenon known as “social inhibition,” where the performance of a difficult task is attenuated when it is performed with other individuals present relative to the case of its being performed alone (Allport, 1924; Katz and Schanck, 1938). Researchers have classified social facilitation into two subcategories on the basis of the context of other individuals’ presence: “the co-action effect,” in which task performance is facilitated by concurrent action of other individuals, and “the audience effect,” in which it is facilitated by the presence of an evaluative observer (Bond and Titus, 1983; Harkins, 1987)
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