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. Research shows that social loafing can reduce group productivity and morale, as some members rely on others to carry the workload. Understanding this concept is important for designing effective teamwork strategies.

Professor: Let me give you an example from a study I conducted with my students. I asked them to form groups of four and work on a project to design a marketing campaign for a local business. Each group had to submit one final proposal. I noticed that two students in one group did most of the work, while the other two contributed very little. When I interviewed the less active students, they said they felt their ideas wouldn’t be individually recognized anyway, so they didn’t see the point of working hard. Interestingly, when I later asked the same students to complete a similar task individually, they put in much more effort and produced higher-quality work. This clearly illustrates the concept.