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 people feel their individual contributions are less identifiable or less critical to the group's outcome. Social loafing is more likely in large groups, when tasks are simple or repetitive, and when members believe others will compensate for their lack of effort. Psychologists have studied this behavior to understand how group dynamics can sometimes decrease productivity.

Professor: Let me give you a classic example from a university study. Researchers asked students to clap and shout as loudly as possible, first alone and then in groups of various sizes. When students clapped alone, they produced about 73 decibels of sound. But when they clapped in pairs, the average sound per person dropped to 72 decibels. In groups of six, the average per person fell even further to about 66 decibels. So the larger the group, the quieter each individual clapped. Why? Because students felt that their personal effort was less noticeable—they could 'hide in the crowd.' They assumed others would make up the noise, so they didn't try as hard. This perfectly illustrates social loafing: as group size increased, individual effort decreased, even though the task was the same.