Mere presence effects in humans: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(86)90040-5Get rights and content

Abstract

A review is made of all of the experimental literature on social facilitation to examine the effects of the mere presence of another person. Mere presence effects are viewed as a minimal condition for social facilitation effects. Criteria are proposed for what will be accepted as clear tests of mere presence, clear tests of other social facilitation effects, and tests of the effects of the presence of an experimenter. All the social facilitation studies are listed in tables which detail either the findings of the study or the reason for its exclusion. From the review of studies it is suggested that there are at least two major social facilitation phenomena. First, there is evidence for the existence of effects due to just the mere presence of another person but only when there is some uncertainty in the behavior of the person present. This is related to controlling for unsafe situations. Second, there is evidence for a tendency to conform to public standards or norms when in the presence of another person. This is stronger both when the person is observing the subject and when the person present is the experimenter. This effect is related to controlling social approval and disapproval. It is argued that the main theories of observer effects are equivalent and merely describe different levels of the same process.

References (304)

  • R. Ader et al.

    Free-operant avoidance conditioning in individual and paired human subjects

    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour

    (1963)
  • F.H. Allport

    The influence of the group upon association and thought

    Journal of Experimental Psychology

    (1920)
  • D.M. Amoroso et al.

    The effects of physiological measurement and presence of others on ratings of erotic stimuli

    Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science

    (1972)
  • D.M. Amoroso et al.

    Effects of anxiety and socially mediated anxiety reduction on paired-associate learning

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1969)
  • C.A. Anderson

    An experimental study of “Social facilitation” as affected by “intelligence”

    American Journal of Sociology

    (1929)
  • H. Andersson et al.

    Social facilitation and inhibition in the social judgement theory paradigm

    Umea Psychological Reports No. 132

    (1977)
  • A.L. Baldwin et al.

    Effects of public and private success or failure on children's repetitive motor behavior

    Child Development

    (1958)
  • Barefoot, J. C., & Kleck, R. E. (No date). The effects of race and physical proximity of a co-actor on the social...
  • J.A. Bargh et al.

    Mediating factors in the arousal-performance relationship

    Motivation and Emotion

    (1978)
  • R.S. Baron et al.

    Distraction as a source of drive in social facilitation research

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1978)
  • A.A. Baumeister et al.

    Social facilitation of body rocking in severely retarded patients

    Journal of Clinical Psychology

    (1970)
  • R.F. Baumeister

    A self-presentational view of social phemonena

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1982)
  • J. Beasley

    Comparison of the performance of individuals and three-member groups in a maze learning situation

    Perceptual and Motor Skills

    (1958)
  • M.J. Beatty

    Social facilitation and listening comprehension

    Perceptual and Motor Skills

    (1980)
  • H.P. Beck et al.

    The effects of frequency of feedback on a simple coaction task

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1980)
  • P.A. Bell et al.

    Effects of heat, social facilitation, sex differences and task difficulty on reaction time

    Human Factors

    (1982)
  • M.B. Bennett

    Factors influencing performance on group and individual tests of intelligence: II. Social facilitation

    Journal of Educational Psychology

    (1946)
  • S.M. Berger et al.

    Some effects of an audience on information processing

    (1983)
  • S.M. Berger et al.

    Audience effects in anticipatory learning: A comparison of drive and practice-inhibition analyses

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1982)
  • S.M. Berger et al.

    Audience-induced inhibition of overt practice during learning

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1981)
  • S.M. Berger et al.

    Observer mediation and learning in the presence of a stranger

    (1980)
  • B.O. Bergum et al.

    Vigilance performance as a function of paired monitoring

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1962)
  • B.O. Bergum et al.

    Effects of authoritarianism on vigilance performance

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (1963)
  • A.S. Berkey et al.

    The combined effect of audience and anxiety on paired-associates learning

    Psychonomic Science

    (1972)
  • A.M. Bird

    Effects of social facilitation upon females' performance of two psychomotor tasks

    Research Quarterly

    (1973)
  • T.O. Blank

    Observer and incentive effects on word association responding

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

    (1980)
  • T.O. Blank et al.

    Social facilitation of word associations: Further questions

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1976)
  • D.L. Bode et al.

    A palmar sweat investigation of the effect of audience variation upon stage fright

    Speech Monographs

    (1963)
  • C.F. Bond

    Social facilitation: A self-presentional view

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1982)
  • C.F. Bond et al.

    Social facilitation: A meta-analysis of 241 studies

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1983)
  • R.J. Borden et al.

    Affective, physiological and attitudinal consequences of audience presence

    Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society

    (1976)
  • R.J. Borden et al.

    Influence of self-observation versus other-observation on immediate and delayed recall

    Journal of General Psychology

    (1978)
  • R.A. Bowman et al.

    Effects of peer presence on psychomotor measures with EMR children

    Exceptional Children

    (1978)
  • R.M. Bray et al.

    Social facilitation among interacting groups

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

    (1980)
  • W.E. Broen et al.

    A reaction potential ceiling and response decrements in complex situations

    Psychological Review

    (1961)
  • M. Brown et al.

    Factors affecting viewing time of pornography

    Journal of Social Psychology

    (1973)
  • J.L. Bruning et al.

    Socially induced drive and range of cue utilization

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1968)
  • J.L. Bruning et al.

    The effects of various social factors on motivation in a competitive situation

    Journal of Social Psychology

    (1966)
  • R.W. Buck et al.

    Behavioral and physiological responses to the presence of a friendly or neutral person in two types of stressful conditions

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1972)
  • C. Burri

    The influence of an audience upon recall

    Journal of Educational Psychology

    (1931)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text