The Ringelman Effect: How Teamwork Makes People Lazy

What is the Ringelmann effect

The Ringelmann effect is a reduction in personal effort when working in a group. When a person acts alone, he gives all the best, but if he performs a task together with others, he tries a little less. And the larger the group, the smaller the contribution of each of its members.

For the first time this effect discovered French professor, agronomist Max Ringelmann. At the end of the 19th century, he conducted a series of experiments on labor productivity. During them, young students from the agricultural school were asked pull the rope - first one by one, and then in a group of 7 and 14 people.

Working alone, the men pulled the rope with an average force of 85.3 kg. When 7 and 14 people worked on the task, the efforts of each decreased to 65 and 61.4 kg, respectively.

Ringelman considered the main reason for this effect to be the lack of coordination of actions. Several people cannot move in sync: maximum tension and relaxation occur at different times, which ultimately reduces the performance of everyone.

However, a number of works devoted to the Ringelmann effect or, in other words, social lazinessrefute this assumption.

Why group work makes people relax

The Ringelmann effect also occurs when coordination of actions is not required to complete the work. Moreover, it arises even if there is no group at all, but the person believes that there is one.

In one experiment recruited students and asked them to clap and shout with all their might. At first, the participants performed the task one by one, then in groups of two and six people.

As scientists expected, as the number of people grew, personal performance each decreased. Two students shouted and clapped at 66% of their capacity, and six of them only at 36%.

It can be assumed that the participants tried less because the group already made a lot of noise, and people thought that this was enough and they could not waste their energy in vain.

To exclude this, scientists put on students soundproof headphones and said that they would work in a group, but at the same time they would not hear their partners. In fact, there was no group, but people believed that they were acting as a team, and their productivity was declining. If the students thought that they were shouting together, they performed the task at 82% of the possible intensity, and if they thought that they were working with six, they completed the task at 74%.

Thus, the Ringelmann effect cannot be explained by a lack of coordination alone. It is more likely that people in the group relax for other reasons. There are several theories why this is going on.

1. Dispersion of social influence. When a boss asks a subordinate to complete a task, he directs all his social influence to one person, and he tries his best. When the task is performed by a group, the influence of the leader is distributed among several employees, and everyone receives less. As a result, efforts are also reduced.
2. The inability to evaluate the results of their actions. When a person can compare his contribution with what others have done, it makes sense to try. It will support him self-esteem, will help you stand out from the background of other members of the group, or at least be no worse than them. If the contribution cannot be assessed—for example, as in the experiment with shouting or the task of pulling the rope—what is the point of putting in extra effort? In addition, even if the group shows itself badly, this will not be the personal fault of the person, which means that the fear of failure is much less.
3. Lack of faith that their efforts are important. If a person does not have individual responsibility and understanding of the significance of his contribution, then he ceases to believe that he is useful here. In other words, the member of the group believes that the team can manage without him, and therefore there is no reason to strain.

Although the Ringelmann effect is characteristic of group work, it is quite possible to fight it, if we take into account the causes of social laziness and make efforts to correct the state of affairs.

How to overcome the Ringelmann effect when working in a team

In one meta-analysis suggested a model of personal efforts in a team, which lists all the necessary conditions for the absence of social laziness. According to her, each team member needs to see the results of his work and understand how he contributes to the productivity of the group. In addition, common efforts should benefit the team and, no less important, the person personally.

Violation of one or more conditions will lead to the appearance of the Ringelmann effect. For example, social loafing is often found in large companieswhere each employee participates only in a small part of the production process. Because people do not understand how their work helps to produce a product and make money, they have no motivation to try harder.

Given these factors, there are several rules that can help reduce the Ringelmann effect in a group:

1. Appreciate the personal contribution of each. Team members need to understand how much they have done for the group. Moreover, they should know that their contribution can be appreciated by employees and managers.
2. Prove that everyone's work is important for the common cause. A person must believe that his work is unique and necessary for the success of the team. If an employee understands that nothing will work out without him or it will not be as good as with his participation, he will try.
3. Make the team cohesive. If a person respects and loves the members of his team, he is more likely to work to the maximum so as not to let the team down.
4. Provide a return on your efforts. If the results of the group's work depend on the personal benefit of everyone, people are less likely to shirk from work. However, it is important that fairness be maintained in the distribution of rewards. If someone tries less, and everyone gets equally, the motivation to make an effort will decrease.

The meta-analysis also noted that the effect of social laziness disappears when a person works on interesting and important things for himself. If people are genuinely passionate about their work and confident in the value of the results, working in a group will not make them try less.