Social Facilitation - Controversies

Controversies

Social facilitation’s definition and explanations are not without controversy. Social psychologists first debate whether social facilitation in humans can be through mere presence effect, or whether it must be through evaluation. Many psychologists also question whether social facilitation and social loafing, an occurrence in which someone works less when in a group rather than by themselves, should be studied together, rather than separately, because of the overlap of conditions. One of the greatest controversies surrounding social facilitation is its origination. Psychologists continue to debate whether social facilitation is adopted through the innate biology of humans and animals, social learning through interaction with society, or individual interaction with other people, and not society in general. Further research and expansion of experiments and theories may begin to resolve, or further complicate, these issues.