social facilitation

Meaning: Social facilitation is a change in individual performance caused by the presence of others, whether an audience or people doing the same task alongside. Others raise physiological arousal, and arousal strengthens the dominant response, the response most likely for that person. On an easy or well-practiced task the dominant response is usually correct, so performance improves. On a hard or unfamiliar task it is often wrong, so performance tends to worsen. Zajonc's arousal account is the standard explanation; evaluation apprehension (worry about being judged) and distraction are other accounts of why others raise arousal.

On the MCAT: A passage compares people doing a task alone versus with an audience or co-actors, then asks you to predict the result. Simple task or expert performer: better performance with others present. Complex task or novice: worse performance. A graph may show a crossover between the alone and observed conditions as difficulty changes.

Common confusion: The word facilitation suggests help, but the effect can hurt; task difficulty and skill set the direction. Do not mix it up with social loafing, where people in a group tend to exert less effort when their individual contribution cannot be identified. Social facilitation concerns performance that others can observe, and it is driven by arousal.