Social Laziness

Laziness is one of the evils of our time. Laziness, lack of desire to work, voluntary idleness … Even sometimes, when we work in a group, something strange happens:  the whole is less than the sum of the parts. That is, what each person contributes is less when in a group. This is known as social laziness.

Social loafing is the tendency to exert less effort on a task when an individual’s efforts form an unidentifiable part of a group than when the same task is performed alone. The experience of working in a group can lead people to try less and perform less efficiently. A priori, some of the causes are lack of motivation and problems of organization and coordination. Let’s delve into this concept.

The beginning of laziness

In 1880, the agricultural engineer Max Ringelmann was the first to study social laziness. Ringelmann put 14 people to drag a load and checked the force that each one exerted. He also had the same people dragging the load individually. The results showed that when people dragged the load alone, they exerted more force than when they were all together.

Although Ringelmann attributed this loss of effort to poor coordination, later studies discovered other causes. In a study in which participants had to clap and shout as loudly as they could, it was found that the noise level each person made decreased the larger the group they were in. They concluded that people are hiding in the crowd.

Be just as lazy as everyone else

People do not worry about underperforming in a group when their individual contribution is not identifiable. When someone cannot be blamed for their activity being inferior to others, people tend to exert less effort than they could. But social laziness does not only depend on whether or not the contribution of each individual can be identified.

Equity and social comparison are factors that also play a role. The fact that one person in the group does less will lead other people to settle for doing the same, that is, they will be fair. On the other hand, comparing the performance of each with that of the others produces a feeling of pressure to do more or less than could be done.

Mental laziness

Social laziness doesn’t just happen when doing tasks that require physical effort. It also occurs in cognitive tasks, especially when we have to think. For example, in a brainstorm. The larger the group, the more the number of ideas that each person contributes will be reduced. As with tasks that require physical exertion, in those that require mental exertion, fairness and social comparison can lead to laziness.

One area where social laziness occurs a lot is in work groups. When we have to work as a team, our efforts can be reduced, as well as that  of all the members. Therefore, good coordination with homework assignments can lead to each person giving their best. The fact that one or more people give the maximum can lead to others following them, but also to doing the minimum.

The importance of laziness

The type of task to be performed also influences. Social laziness occurs at a lower level when the tasks are interesting. Also when the level of dependency is high, laziness is reduced. If the tasks of each individual are necessary for success there will be less laziness due to social pressure to achieve success.

Therefore, social laziness does not always occur when working in a group. Some ways to avoid it or at least reduce it are the following:

• Make each person’s effort identifiable.
• Increase commitment to successful task execution.

• Give the opportunity to evaluate individual and group contributions.

If we have to carry out a task in a group it is important that all the members of the group have high motivation. If not, at least we can try to assess the performance of each person and give importance to the final objective. Good management of group work will require that each member value their work and that of the others.