The effect of team cohesion on social loafing in relay teams

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent team cohesion influences social loafing in a 30-meter sprint relay. Thirty-nine male college sport students competed under high and low identifiable conditions in which the differences between sprint times were recorded. Faster running times under the identified condition than under the –non-identified condition was seen as indicative of social loafing. In order to create variability in cohesion, the participants were randomly divided into ten teams, and half of the team participated in a team-building exercise. The results indicated that participants in the cohesive groups tended to perform equally well under identified and non-identified conditions, whereas those participants in the non-cohesive teams ran more slowly under the identified condition. The results support our expectation that group cohesion reduces participants’ willingness to engage in social loafing.