The effect of social inhibition is to reduce the effectiveness of the actions performed by the individual with the presence of outsiders. Such extraneous viewers can be both real and imaginary. The effect has a strong connection with the phenomenon of facilitation, the mechanism of which is directly opposite to social inhibition.
The origins of the phenomenon
The first researcher of the sphere of influence of spectators on behavioral characteristics and the psyche was a psychologist from the American Indiana Institute named Norman Triplet. The scientist was a fan of cycling and noticed that the participants of the competition show the best time when competing in groups in comparison with single races.
Before showing the find to the public, Triplet conducted a series of experiments that confirmed his hypotheses. Soon, the researcher found that rivalry helps release latent energy, which is not available under normal conditions.
Other experiments conducted by researchers from different countries found that the presence of a viewer helps subjects more efficiently perform the simplest actions. However, a number of further studies found that the presence of observers does not always bring a positive outcome.
Certain experiments have shown that the presence of strangers has a negative effect on the quality of a given work. Then the researchers could not yet create on the basis of all this one theory that would explain both effects of social facilitation and inhibition. For this reason, research in this area has been stopped for a long time.
New theory
The next person to notice the problem was Robert Zyens, a scientist in the field of social psychology. This man proposed a completely new activation hypothesis. Zayens' theory claimed that both effects of social inhibition and facilitation manifest themselves through general arousal.
He also discovered some of the nuances of this process. He found that examples of social inhibition manifest themselves during the solution of not the simplest intellectual problems. The scientist drew attention to the fact that the effectiveness of ordinary actions is only stimulated by the presence of a viewer. During the execution of complex tasks with not the most obvious outcomes, the opportunity to make a mistake increases.
Dominant reactions are stimulated due to arousal in both cases. Robert Zyens conducted about three hundred studies with his assistants, as well as tens of thousands of volunteers, and strengthened his theory with data obtained in practice.
Key factors
As a rule, scientists note three factors that influence the effect of social inhibition. Firstly, it is a fear of evaluation, that is, observers contribute to the appearance of anxiety simply because we do not give a damn about their opinion.
Broken attention. When a person begins to think about the reaction of others or the work efficiency of partners, attentiveness, as well as the correctness of the work, is reduced, thus supporting the hypothesis of fear of evaluating one's own actions.
The presence of a viewer. The mere fact of having an observer may already become an irritant and cause social inhibition. How strong the reaction will be depends on the number of spectators and the degree of their significance for the person, the attitude of the audience towards him and the degree of audience filling.
Distraction
An alternative point of view on the question is becoming more popular - the hypothesis of distraction / conflict. The hypothesis says that in the process of any activity that someone is watching, the individual's attention is torn between the audience and the control over the work performed.
Such mutual activities can increase excitement and increase or decrease work efficiency. It depends on whether a person has already faced this task or not. In addition, the strength of the effect may depend on a number of factors.
Overload theory
Another alternative to social inhibition is overload theory, which states that distraction factors do not lead to increased arousal, but to an overload of brain activity. At this time, a person has an excess of information data in the field of working memory.
In relation to complex tasks, human productivity is dying away, because his attention is focused on extraneous things, because of which the concentration on his main task is lost.
Impact on science
The effect of social inhibition has not been fully studied and is increasingly attracting the attention of scientists. Therefore, they continue to check and double-check the most diverse factors of this process with enviable regularity.
One of the last large experiments was carried out in 2014, during which the features of social inhibition and examples of this condition in autists were studied. At the moment, we can certainly say that the phenomenon cannot be considered separately from cases of its manifestation.
Team management
The effects of social facilitation and inhibition are some of the main problems in the methodology of managing a group of people. The level of development of this collective plays a large role in the work of the collective. For example, monitoring well-developed socially and psychologically groups only has a positive effect on their work.
In particular, this involves solving difficult problems that have different outcomes. Thus, the creation of a strong and developed group is the main condition for solving such problems.