Moving in the presence of others - a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Social facilitation is one of the most prominent and oldest research topics in (social) psychology. It is the “increase in response merely from the sight or sound of others making the same movement” (Allport, 1924, p. 262) or conditions of “sheer presence of other individuals” (Zajonc, 1965, p. 269). Experiments found facilitation, inhibition or no effect (Bond & Titus, 1983), argued to be a function of task difficulty (Zajonc, 1965). In humans, cognitive tasks have been studied more frequently than motor tasks. Skill-based tasks (i.e., coordination-based) are hypothesized to be negatively affected by the presence of others due to a higher cognitive load (overload hypothesis, Manstead & Semin, 1980), whereas performances in effort-based tasks (i.e., condition-based) should profit due to increased readiness.In a first step, a systematic search of several databases was conducted, identifying articles comparing motor-task performance in the presence of or in coaction with others and alone. We identified N=72 articles investigating motor-related human performance (5,419 participants), published between 1924 and 2019. Effort-based tasks appeared to be facilitated, while within skill-based tasks, differences between tasks performed under time pressure and precision pressure were identified (cf. Bond & Titus, 1983).In a second step, we conducted a meta-analysis (N=28) with subsequent moderator analyses. The results generally align with the systematic review. Moreover, the experimenter’s influential presence was emphasized. Finally, this review supports the overload hypothesis and draws conclusions for the state of the theory and experimental limitations specific to social-facilitation research on motor tasks.