Social facilitation of dominant responses by the presence of an audience and the mere presence of others.

Abstract

EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT THE PRESENCE OF AN AUDIENCE AFFECTS INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE BY ENHANCING THE EMISSION OF DOMINANT RESPONSES. EVALUATED THE PROPOSAL THAT THE MERE PRESENCE OF OTHER PERSONS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AUDIENCE EFFECTS. 45 STUDENTS PERFORMED A PSEUDORECOGNITION TASK; 15 PERFORMED THE TASK ALONE, 15 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE OF 2 PASSIVE SPECTATORS, AND 15 BEFORE 2 NONSPECTATORS. THE TASK PLACED PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED VERBAL HABITS IN COMPETITION WITH EACH OTHER. THE PRESENCE OF AN AUDIENCE ENHANCED THE EMISSION OF DOMINANT RESPONSES, BUT THE MERE PRESENCE OF OTHERS DID NOT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)