The Hindu Business Line : Are you a crowd performer?

A corporate trainer I met recently shared a not-so-surprising experience. He said he was comfortable training clients he did not know than he was training people who were his friends. This effect is contrary to the home-crowd advantage that drives some football teams to perform well. What compels some to do well in front of a crowd and others to falter?

Take my daughter. She exerts her individuality when it comes to eating alone. Place her among her friends and she gobbles her food in quick time. Why? Social psychologists attribute it to the “social-facilitation effect”. It is the tendency of people to perform better in the presence of others. My daughter eats without much fuss when she is with her friends.

Social-facilitation effect

But the social-facilitation effect is not always true, as the corporate trainer will testify. Studies have shown that we sometimes perform badly amidst people we know.

If you are giving your first dance performance or violin concert, you will be more nervous if your parents or spouse were present. Why do we have this seemingly contradictory effect?

Robert Zajonc, a social psychologist, conducted studies that seem to explain this behaviour. Through several experiments, he found that people do well in groups when the work involved is not complex. On the other hand, complex tasks such as painting or writing is better performed alone.

Handling unknown clients

Likewise, some perform better when they are delivering to an audience that they are not intimate with. This sociological effect, perhaps, explains why some football teams perform well at home while others do well away from home. This phenomenon can be seen among portfolio managers too. I met one who claimed that he was more comfortable handling unknown clients than friends.

Of course, the social-facilitation effect has a lot to do with each individual. If you are not concerned about other’s opinion, you may not bother about their influence — even if you perform a complex task like a violin recital to a group that includes your spouse or if you manage your mother-in-law’s portfolio.

(The author is an investment strategist.)

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