in the social psychology of groups, social loafing is the phenomenon of people exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone. this is seen as one of the main reasons groups are sometimes less productive than the combined performance of their members working as individuals, but should be distinguished from the accidental coordination problems that groups sometimes experience. social loafing can be explained by the "free-rider" theory and the resulting "sucker effect", which is an individualâs reduction in effort in order to avoid pulling the weight of a fellow group member. research on social loafing began with rope pulling experiments by ringelmann, who found that members of a group tended to exert less effort in pulling a rope than did individuals alone. in more recent research, studies involving modern technology, such as online and distributed groups, have also shown clear evidence of social loafing. many of the causes of social loafing stem from an individual feeling that his or her effort will not matter to the group. ==history== ===rope-pulling experiments=== thumb|results from ringelmann's experiment the first known research on the social loafing effect began in 1913 with max ringelmann's study. he found that when he asked a group of men to pull on a rope, that they did not pull as hard collectively as they did when each was pulling alone. this research did not distinguish whether this was the result of the individuals in a group putting in less effort or of poor coordination within the group.ringelmann, m. (1913) "recherches sur les moteurs animÃ©s: travail de l'homme" [research on animate sources of power: the work of man], annales de l'institut national 
Social_psychology