Social Facilitation
Social Facilitation
When others are watching, people tend to perform better on easy tasks but worse on difficult ones.
Details
Social facilitation is the phenomenon where the presence of other people influences an individual's performance.
When performing a well-practiced, easy task, having an audience tends to improve performance. However, when tackling a new or difficult task, performance can actually decline.
This happens because the presence of others raises arousal levels, which strengthens dominant responses — the most practiced or automatic behaviors.
Feeling nervous before a presentation or interview is related to this effect. Mindy suggests that practicing enough to make a task feel familiar is one of the best ways to work with this phenomenon.
💡 Real-Life Example
If you've ever noticed yourself running faster when others are watching than when you run alone, that's social facilitation in action.
This content is for educational purposes and does not replace professional medical diagnosis.