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social loafing
You work less hard when you think you are in a team.
While Ringelmann's 1913 study observed that group output is less than the sum of individual efforts, he attributed this primarily to coordination failures ('lack of simultaneity') rather than the psychological motivation loss known as 'social loafing'.
The 'social loafing' phenomenon was formally defined and distinguished from coordination issues by Latané, Williams, and Harkins in 1979.
You are less of a team player than you think.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Ringelmann, 1913
- What the check found
- The claim attributes Ringelmann's finding to social loafing, but Ringelmann's 1913 work predates that psychological construct. He identified a coordination problem, not a motivational one.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.