ABSTRACT
Social facilitation refers to the finding that performance is affected by the presence of others. In the mid 1960s, Zajonc proposed the first theory that attempted to explain why the presence of others was sometimes facilitative and sometimes disruptive. He argued that the presence of others raises arousal levels, which in turn causes an increase in the production of ‘dominant responses’. He further suggested that, for simple tasks, dominant responses are appropriate and performance is enhanced. However, for more complex tasks, dominant responses are not sufficient and performance is impaired unless the task is well-learned.
