The class teacher has asked a group of students to prepare for a presentation on the occasion of “Earth Day” for the class. Among the group members two to three students have put their time and effort for the presentation. On the final day of presentation the entire team stood together. Identify the reason for the members, not putting equal amount of efforts in the preparation of the presentation.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Social Loafing
Option (1) Group think — Incorrect. Groupthink is a process in which a group’s concern for unanimous agreement overrides a realistic appraisal of its decisions, so it reaches poor decisions. It is about how a group decides, not about members putting in less effort.
Option (2) Group Polarisation — Incorrect. Group polarisation is the strengthening of the group’s initial position as a result of group interaction and discussion, so groups take more extreme decisions. The students did not take any extreme decision.
Option (3) Social Loafing — Correct. Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, one in which the outputs of all members are pooled. The presentation was the whole team’s work, so a few members could relax and become free riders while two or three did the work, and yet all stood together on the final day.
Option (4) Cohesiveness — Incorrect. Cohesiveness is the togetherness, binding or mutual attraction among group members, the ‘we feeling’. It would make members work for the group, not hold back their effort.
NCERT (2025-26): “Social Loafing … It has been found that individuals work less hard in a group than they do when performing alone. This points to a phenomenon referred to as ‘social loafing’. Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, i.e. one in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members. An example of such a task is the game of tug-of-war. It is not possible for you to identify how much force each member of the team has been exerting. Such situations give opportunities to group members to relax and become a free rider.…” “Group Polarisation … This strengthening of the group’s initial position as a result of group interaction and discussion is referred to as group polarisation. This may sometimes have dangerous repercussions as groups may take extreme positions, i.e. from very weak to very strong decisions.…” “Nature and Formation of Groups … Cohesiveness refers to togetherness, binding, or mutual attraction among group members. As the group becomes more cohesive, group members start to think, feel and act as a social unit, and less like isolated individuals. Members of a highly cohesive group have a greater desire to remain in the group in comparison to those who belong to low cohesive groups. Cohesiveness refers to the team spirit or ‘we feeling’ or a sense of belongingness to the group. It is difficult to leave a cohesive group or to gain membership of a group which is highly cohesive. Extreme cohesiveness however, may sometimes not be in a group’s interest. Psychologists have identified the phenomenon of groupthink (see Box 7.1) which is a consequence of extreme cohesiveness.” |