Oddly Wired
← all facts
social

Your personal effort drops when you join a group.

The phenomenon of decreased group effort is often termed 'social loafing,' a term coined by Latané et al. in 1979, which is historically rooted in the 'Ringelmann effect' documented in 1913.

Ringelmann's 1913 paper identified performance deficits in groups, but the specific term 'social loafing' post-dates his publication.

Your motivation is tied to the visibility of your individual contribution.

Where this comes from

Study
Ringelmann, 1913
What the check found
The phenomenon is correctly linked to the rope-pulling experiment, but the specific label 'social loafing' is a later psychological construct that shouldn't be attributed directly to the 1913 text.
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.