What does social facilitation refer to?

Social facilitation refers to the concept whereby an individual's performance on simple or well-practiced tasks improves in the presence of others. This phenomenon occurs because the presence of an audience or co-actors can lead to increased arousal, which enhances the likelihood of dominant responses being executed effectively. Essentially, when performing tasks that a person is already skilled at, having others around can positively impact their performance level.

To provide some context, in contrast, improvement on complex tasks or under pressure is generally not observed, as these situations may instead lead to anxiety or distraction, resulting in a decline in performance. Thus, while social facilitation specifically highlights enhanced performance on simpler tasks due to the presence of others, complex tasks might suffer from the same social dynamics, demonstrating that performance effects depend significantly on the nature of the tasks being performed.