TOEFL Speaking Task 3

Social loafing is a phenomenon in which individuals exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone. This reduction in motivation occurs because individual contributions become less identifiable, leading people to feel less accountable for the group’s outcome. Social loafing is more likely to occur in simple tasks where group members perceive their own input as dispensable. However, research suggests that making individual performance visible or increasing task meaningfulness can reduce this effect.

Professor: Let me give you an example from my own experience. I once assigned a group project where students had to write a report together. Each group had five students, and they were told to produce one joint report. I noticed that two students in each group did almost all the work, while the other three contributed very little. When I asked the underperforming students why, they said they thought others would handle it. So the next semester, I changed the assignment: each student had to submit a short individual summary of their part, and I also made each group member’s contribution visible to the rest. Immediately, the effort level increased—everyone worked harder because they knew their specific part would be seen and evaluated. That’s a clear case of social loafing and how to reduce it.