Which concept describes improved performance on simple tasks when others are present in the room?

Which concept describes improved performance on simple tasks when others are present in the room?

• A. Normative Social Influence
• B. Culture
• C. Social Facilitation
• D. Deindividuation

Answer: (C)

Social facilitation describes how simply having others in the room can boost performance on easy tasks. When people are watching, we become more aroused or alert, and that arousal heightens our dominant response—the action we’re most likely to perform in that situation. For well-practiced, simple tasks, the dominant response is to perform well, so performance improves. For harder tasks, the heightened arousal can lead to mistakes or slower performance. Normative social influence would explain conforming to be liked, which isn’t about how performance changes with observers. Culture is a broad idea about shared norms and values, not about task performance in the presence of others. Deindividuation refers to losing self-awareness in groups and often leads to impulsive behavior, not a general boost in simple-task performance.

Social facilitation describes how simply having others in the room can boost performance on easy tasks. When people are watching, we become more aroused or alert, and that arousal heightens our dominant response—the action we’re most likely to perform in that situation. For well-practiced, simple tasks, the dominant response is to perform well, so performance improves. For harder tasks, the heightened arousal can lead to mistakes or slower performance. Normative social influence would explain conforming to be liked, which isn’t about how performance changes with observers. Culture is a broad idea about shared norms and values, not about task performance in the presence of others. Deindividuation refers to losing self-awareness in groups and often leads to impulsive behavior, not a general boost in simple-task performance.