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Social loafing — MRCPsych Paper A MCQ

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HardPsychologySocial loafingMRCPsych Paper A

A researcher compares individual effort on the same additive task under three conditions: working alone, working in a group where outputs are pooled and individual contributions cannot be identified, and working in a group where each contribution remains identifiable. Effort is reduced only when outputs are pooled and non-identifiable, despite identical task difficulty and reward. Which phenomenon best explains this finding?

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Correct answer: A — Social loafing

Social loafing is the reduction in individual effort that can occur when people work collectively and their personal contributions are pooled or cannot be evaluated. The decisive finding is that effort falls only in the non-identifiable group condition and returns when individual accountability is restored. Fundamental attribution error concerns overemphasising dispositional explanations for another person's behaviour. Operant extinction is the decline of learned behaviour after reinforcement is withdrawn. Stroop interference is slowed responding caused by conflict between stimulus dimensions, such as a colour word and its ink colour. Group polarisation is the tendency for group discussion to shift members towards a more extreme version of their initial position; it does not describe reduced task effort.

Reference: Torka AK, Mazei J, Hüffmeier J. Together, everyone achieves more—or, less? An interdisciplinary meta-analysis on effort gains and losses in teams. Psychological Bulletin. 2021;147(5):504-534. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34292010/