Introduction
Social Facilitation is a term used to describe people’s behavior in social situations. The psychological concept explains that people are likely to be influenced by the presence of others when completing various tasks (Cuncic, 2020). When a single individual does something in public, they may draw attention to themselves and make others be involved in the process. This effect can be witnessed when people stop watching a street performance or a car wreck on the side of the road, and even when somebody starts to sneeze. The behavior of individuals may become contagious to others. An important aspect of social facilitation is its effect on a person’s performance (Cuncic, 2020). In some cases, one may accomplish a task faster and more efficiently, while in others the opposite may be true. The influence of the audience on a person’s skills depends largely on his or her previous experience with the activity. If an individual has the process under control and knows what they are doing, then the task will be accomplished faster. In the case of being less familiar, however, a person’s performance is likely to suffer. This paper will analyze an instance of social facilitation and its effect on an individual’s (my) performance.
The Experiment
In my experiment, an attempt to facilitate the behavior of other people will be made. The location I chose is a crowded bus on a rainy day. In the evening of a workday, many people are gathered in one place, riding home from their jobs. Since it takes considerable time, it is the perfect opportunity to carry out a test. I attempted to doodle various animals on the foggy windows of the crowded bus and see if any people would join in or react in any meaningful way. Surprisingly, a woman standing next to me tried drawing a fish and complimented my efforts in drawing a cat’s face. Another man also drew a little picture afterward, and a few people around me watched the transpiring events. With my actions, an instance of social facilitation was carried out. I think that the main reason why the experiment was successful is that people on the bus were tired from work and needed to “wind down,” leading to some of them trying to make the ride more entertaining. In regards to the impact of the social situation on my drawing skills, I think that my performance has decreased significantly. I don’t have much experience in drawing animals, and the feeling of being watched made me feel doubtful and uncomfortable.
Conclusion
To summarize, social facilitation is a concept explaining how the presence of others affects people’s actions. With an audience or other participants, individuals can either become better or worse at what they are doing depending on their skill in the field. An experiment involving other people has proved the existence of social facilitation and its influence on an individual’s performance. I tried and succeeded at involving people in drawing on windows, an activity they would have likely not engaged in otherwise. The presence of other participants and an audience has also had a significant impact on my skills. The uneasy atmosphere and the unusual type of task I was performing made me feel worried, affecting my performance. My drawing experience is limited, that is why I did not feel confident in my abilities with an audience being present.
Reference
Cuncic, A. (2020). How Social Facilitation Can Improve Your Performance. Web.