ABSTRACT
First, Triplett's performance groups represented very elemental social units; that is, research on social facilitation focuses attention on the most minimal social conditions: a comparison of how being alone versus having someone else present affects our behaviors. Second, even from the earliest reports, social facilitation had been demonstrated on a variety of tasks and with a wide range of species (e.g., dogs, ants, and chickens) in addition to people. Finally, social facilitation had also been demonstrated with audiences (spectators who were watching a performance) and with coactors (coworkers who were independently performing an identical task as the subject). Because research on social facilitation has such broad and wide-ranging implications—it is potentially relevant whenever people perform in the presence of others—it has been an exciting and dynamic area of study for almost a century.
