How Does The Presence Of Others Affect Our Behavior?
How does the presence of others affect our behavior ? Do you think we act the same way when someone looks at us? Do you think that someone who judges or judges us has the same effect as a simple observer? Does the presence of others make your performance weaker or better? Keep reading for answers to these questions.
One of the first researchers to become interested in these questions was Norman Triplett. He affirmed that the presence of others improves our performance. He performed his experiments with cyclists and evaluated his data to compare their individual workouts to workouts with other cyclists.
Norman did another experiment that involved children. He observed that when children were with peers, working hours were reduced. When the children were alone, they worked more slowly.
These situations showed that when you work with your employees or people who have the same task as you, performance improves. But what happens when these observers are just spectators?
Our behavior is influenced by social facilitation and social inhibition
Social facilitation refers to how the presence of others helps us to improve our behavior and performance. When does this happen? This effect occurs when the task is simple for the person doing it. This also happens when the task does not require significant concentration and one can perform it without complications.
The opposite effect is called social inhibition. When a person is unfamiliar with the task, or when it requires significant concentration and commitment, the presence of others negatively affects performance.
These two effects are relevant when we focus on the type of task. Whether the observers judge our work or are just spectators, the type of task changes how we respond to their presence.
You can either benefit from someone watching you do your best, or you can choose to work alone to focus on getting better at something. It all depends on the task in this scenario.
Does the number of people looking at you make a difference?
Researchers have conducted other studies in this field. These studies include athletics. Researchers found that social facilitation occurs when there are less than ten observers. They also observed that when there are more than ten observers, there is no social facilitation or inhibition.
This is also related to the number of observers. When there are ten or fewer people around us, we can hear their comments and appreciate their movements. This is what increases our skills. They have an influence that changes the way we act. But when there is a large audience, we lose control of the spectators and therefore stop being sensitive to their influence.
Conclusions
The conclusions we can draw about the presence of others have to do with the type of task. When the task is simple, our performance improves. On the other hand, performance is reduced when the task is complicated and requires more attention than usual.
Overactivity from the presence of others can distract attention from the task. If it is a difficult task that we have to focus on, it is therefore only natural that the task becomes more difficult when the attention is not focused. When others are around us, they can distract us.
