Critical Article Summary

The article Many Hands Make Light the Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing was written by Bibb Latane, Kipling Williams, and Stephen Harkins of Ohio State University. In the beginning, the authors included an example of social loafing. The example showcased when people clap in crowds, an individual will not exert much energy into clapping compared to when they are the only one in the crowd. This helps the reader to understand that social loafing is related to social atmospheres of a certain number of people which results in a particular action and how it is done. 

The article jumps into The Ringelmann Effect which studies how one person will react to pulling on a rope compared to when the individual is pulling on the rope with the help of multiple other people. The study was never published but that does not mean Ringelmann’s findings were not reputable. Ringelmann found that when one person was pulling on the rope, the individual averaged 63 kilograms of pressure. When a group of eight pulled on the rope, the group exerted 248 kilograms. However, 63 multiplied by eight is 504. The study showed that even with more participants, the solo individual still out-performed the group of eight. Mathematically, the group of eight should have exerted 504 kilograms of pressure. This can slightly prove that when working in groups, people do not try as hard as they do with the help of others. 

To be fair, the entire point of working in groups is to make it fairly easier on the solo individual. Individuals do not perform their best when performing aside others as they do not “need” to. When performing in groups, the individual is aware they need to perform as much as they need to in order to get the job done. When mistakes and errors occur, it is blamed on the group as a whole instead of one individual. With the rope pulling study, there is no one person that performed better than the others as all participants pulled at the same time.  

This article makes the reader think. What does this information mean? How can this information help us understand the human brain? It is quite easy to understand the human brain in this concept. We, as humans, know that when we clap in a crowd, we are not exerting the same energy as when we clap for a sibling or relative’s name at a graduation. We know that the clapping from an audience will achieve the amount of noise needed but at an event like a graduation, family members will cheer extra loud as they are expressing their pride for their graduate. 

The article then proceeds to explain some of the other experiments that the writers conducted.  Their results went hand in hand with Ringelmann’s findings.  I think this article is fairly helpful when understanding social loafing.  Being a psychology student, comprehending social loafing came effortlessly as these actions are done on the regular.  Although, it was interesting to see the studies behind these actions and actually recognize them.  The reader will end reading this article with a much better understanding of social loafing and all actions that cause social loafing.