Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that people engage in social loafing?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To analyze the question, we look at common explanations for social loafing and evaluate each option against those explanations.
Option a: 'They view individual contributions to the work as unnecessary.' This aligns with a core idea of social loafing: people may think their own effort isn’t essential when others are contributing, leading to reduced personal effort.
Option b: 'They underestimate their contributions and overestimate those of others.' This statement suggests a misperception about relative input, which would actually counteract loafing if individuals believed others were contributing more; in standard social loafing theory, the issue is typically that individuals feel their own input isn’t critical or that they can get by with less effort, not that they misjudge their own contribution relative to others. Therefore, this is not a typical listed cause of social loafing.
Option c: 'They feel less accountable for the work.' A reduced sense of accountability is a well-documented contributor to social loafing, as individuals feel less personal responsibility for the outcome when working in a group.
Option d: 'They free ride on the efforts of others.' Free riding is essentially the shorthand description of social loafing: relying on others to do more of the work while contributing less oneself.
In summary, options a, c, and d describe mechanisms commonly associated with social loafing, whereas option b describes a perceptual bias about contributions that does not correspond to the standard causal explanations of social loafing. This makes option b the statement that is not one of the typical reasons people engage in social loafing.

PSY 200 (002) Spring 2025 Introduction to Psychology

Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that people engage in social loafing?

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