Social facilitation refers to the
phenomenon of how the presence of another human can impair or improve one’s task
performance. The effects of social facilitation is widely studied in the
context of sports. For example, an ace tennis player may be able to play a
better game in the presence of an audience.
There are various theoretical
explanations for this effect. For
example, based on the activation theory, the arousal levels of people are
elevated in the presence of others. This heightened arousal then increases
performance in well-learned tasks. Conversely, there is also the evaluation
apprehension theory, according to which, it is not the presence of others but
the fear of being evaluated that increases arousal in performers.
Now, if human performance is affected
by the presence of another human, does it mean that human performance is also
affected by the presence of an anthropomorphic agent?
According to this article, social facilitation effects holds true in the presence of
an anthropomorphic agent as well. The researchers found that when participants were given an easy task to perform,
their performance was better when they were in the company of a virtual human
than when they were alone. Conversely, when participants were given a difficult
task to perform, their performance was worse when they were in the company of a
virtual human.
Think of this when designing
interfaces with anthropomorphic agents!
Photo credit: Jupiter Firelyte
(Berries & Latte) via Wikimedia Commons.
Arathi, do you have a contact email?
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