In the literature the division of responsibility “social lounging” it is called. The first study on this subject was done by Max Ringelmann in the 1880s. That is why it is also called the “Ringelmann effect”.

If you’ve worked in a group before, this is probably the case psychological phenomenon You have experienced it firsthand. Have you ever wondered why this situation occurs?

Ringelmann used a rope to test social laziness.

Max Ringelman; a rope for the participants only, then asked them to shoot with a group of six. While one person could pull 85.3 kg on the rope, 6 people could pull a total of 390 kg.

In short, the individual tractive force was reduced to 65 kilograms, resulting in a reduction of 24%. In addition, as the number of people in the group increases, personal appearances fell further. So what causes this situation?

Social laziness can occur in 4 situations.

The results of several researchers, who later conducted other experiments on this subject, supported Ringelmann’s experiment. What causes social laziness, say psychologists, is: 4 main reasons lists:

• Motivation
• Distribution of responsibilities
• group size
• expectations

Motivation and division of responsibility:

In the assigned task people with low motivationThey are more prone to “social laziness” when part of a group.

The possibility of increasing social laziness in the distribution of responsibilities is that people do not respond to the task assigned to them. less personally responsible It happens when they feel and think that their personal efforts will have little effect on the outcome.

Group size and expectations:

People who work individually or in small groups feel that their commitment is more important and try to contribute more. The larger the group, human effort that’s how low it is.

Finally, a person in the group to whom other participants have not contributed enough is likely to ensure that the task does not fail. more work shows. On the other hand, if there are working people in the group, the rest are likely to be prone to “social laziness”.

Social laziness can be reduced.

The “Ringelmann Effect” group performance and productivity Its effects are undeniable, but there are some things experts recommend to avoid:

• Assignment of individual duties and responsibilities
• Forming small groups and providing an environment of “individual responsibility”
• Set clear standards and rules
• Separate evaluation of individual and group performance
• Highlighting the performance of individual members