托福口语 Task 3

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone. This phenomenon occurs because individuals feel less accountable for the final outcome and believe their personal contribution is less identifiable. Social loafing is more likely in tasks where group members’ efforts are combined into a single output, making it difficult to measure individual performance. However, research shows that social loafing can be reduced when tasks are challenging, when group members know each other, or when individual contributions are made visible and evaluated.

Professor: Let me give you an example from my own experience. In one of my psychology classes, I assigned a group project to create a presentation on a famous experiment. Each group had five students, and they were all graded the same. I noticed that in some groups, two or three students did most of the work, while others just showed up on the day of the presentation and read a few slides. This is classic social loafing. But then I changed the assignment the next semester. I made each student responsible for a distinct section of the presentation, and I told them they would be graded individually on their part. Also, I asked groups to meet with me twice during the project so I could see who was contributing. In those groups, all students worked hard, and the presentations were much better. The effort increased because each person’s contribution was visible and individually assessed.