Social Facilitation among Interacting Groups

The present experiment examined social facilitation among interacting groups and compared Cottrell's evaluation-apprehension hypothesis with Zajonc's mere-presence hypothesis. Subjects worked problems of moderate and high difficult; alone or in two- or four-person groups and were watched bi' evaluative, nonevaluative, or no observers. Results for the moderately difficult problems supported the facilitation phenomenon both for groups and individuals, and were consistent with the evaluation-apprehension hypothesis. Performance on high/v difficult problems was not altered by observers' presence.