Social Facilitation describes how performance is affected when observed; what is correct about task difficulty?

• A. Being observed improves performance on simple tasks and impairs performance on difficult tasks.
• B. Being observed improves performance on all tasks.
• C. Observing others has no effect on performance.
• D. Performance worsens on all tasks when observed.

Answer: (A)

Social facilitation describes how being observed increases arousal, which in turn affects performance. When someone is watching, this arousal tends to help with tasks that are simple or well-practiced, because the dominant correct response is more likely to come out. However, for harder or novel tasks, increased arousal can interfere with the more difficult or less automatic responses, leading to worse performance. That’s why being observed can improve performance on easy tasks while impairing performance on difficult ones. The other statements don’t fit this pattern, since observation doesn’t boost all tasks, has no effect, or worsen all tasks.