Meera and her friends are practising a song for an upcoming competition. Meera started to lip sync thinking that this is only for rehearsal and her other friends are singing loud enough. Identify the phenomenon Meera was engaging in:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Social loafing
Option (1) Conformity — Incorrect. Conformity means behaving according to the group norm, the expectations of other group members, as a student signs a protest letter to avoid losing friends. Meera is not following a norm; she is cutting down her own effort.
Option (2) Social loafing — Correct. Social loafing is a reduction in individual effort when working on a collective task, one in which outputs are pooled with those of other group members. In a chorus no one can tell how loudly each member sings, so Meera relaxes and becomes a free rider while her friends sing loud enough.
Option (3) Social facilitation — Incorrect. Social facilitation is the better performance of a person doing an activity in the presence of others: their presence leads to arousal and can motivate one to enhance performance. Meera does less, not more.
Option (4) Compliance — Incorrect. Compliance is behaving in a particular way in response to a request made by someone, without necessarily agreeing. No one has asked Meera to lip sync; she chose to hold back.
Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2024 on 19-07-2024 (Slot 1), and in CUET (UG) 2025 on 21-05-2025 (Slot 1).
NCERT (2025-26): “Social Loafing … Social facilitation research suggests that presence of others leads to arousal and can motivate individuals to enhance their performance if they are already good at solving something. This enhancement occurs when a person’s efforts are individually evaluated. What would happen if efforts of an individual in a group are pooled so that you look at the performance of the group as a whole? Do you know what often happens? 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.…” |