Beyond Social Facilitation: A Review of the Far-Reaching Effects of Social Attention

Steinmetz, Janina; Pfattheicher, Stefan

doi:10.1521/soco.2017.35.5.585

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…That is, we have not provided evidence for the psychological process in this field study. Recent research has accumulated evidence that individuals' avoidance (rather than approach) system underlies the effect of social influence in general and watching eyes in particular (Keller & Pfattheicher, ; Pfattheicher, ; Pfattheicher & Keller, ; Schnuerch & Pfattheicher, in press; Steinmetz & Pfattheicher, ). That is to say, individuals typically change behavior when being observed not to gain a positive reputation and to make a good impression in the eyes of others (i.e., approach) but typically to avoid the violation of social expectations, social punishment, and a bad reputation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field study on watching eyes and hand hygiene compliance in a public restroom

Pfattheicher¹,

Strauch²,

Diefenbacher³

et al. 2018

J Applied Social Pyschol

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Humans modify their behavior in a socially desirable way when being watched by others. We applied this basic idea to hand hygiene compliance, a behavior that is crucial for preventing germ transmission and successive infections in many settings. Building on the assumption that hand hygiene behavior is socially desirable, we assume that individuals show stronger hand hygiene compliance when being watched. In a field study in a women's public restroom (N = 354), we exposed individuals to a message advising that hand‐washing protects against the spread of pathogens. In the experimental condition, stylized human watching eyes were presented above the message. In the control condition, three stars were presented. Analysis revealed a significantly higher percentage of hand hygiene compliance in the watching eyes condition (83.3%) compared to the control condition (71.9%; odds ratio: 1.95, p = .01). The applied value for employers and public institutions is discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A field study on watching eyes and hand hygiene compliance in a public restroom

Pfattheicher¹,

Strauch²,

Diefenbacher³

et al. 2018

J Applied Social Pyschol

Self Cite

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“…Research in social psychology has shown that individuals perform better in tasks with the presence of observers. 50-52 This social facilitation effect can be enhanced when the observer is an experimenter, for example, experimenter presence improved attention performance in hyperactive children when compared with mother presence. 53 Second, after each run, participants had a brief rest 54-56 ; taking breaks might prevent attention reduction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habituation of P300 in the Use of P300-based Brain-Computer Interface Spellers: Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Versus Age-Matched Controls

Silva-Sauer

Donchin

2020

Clin EEG Neurosci

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The P300-based brain-computer interface speller can provide motor independent communication to individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the motor system. P300 amplitude stability is critical for operation of the P300 speller. The P300 has good long-term stability, but to our knowledge, short-term habituation in the P300 speller has not been studied. In the current study, 15 participants: 8 ALS patients and 7 age-matched healthy volunteers (HVs), used 2 versions of P300 spellers, Face speller and Flash speller, each for 30 minutes. The ALS group performed as well as the HVs in both spellers and HVs did better with the Face speller than Flash speller while the ALS group performed equally well in both spellers. Neither intra-run P300 habituation nor inter-run P300 habituation was found. The P300 speller could be a reliable communication device for individuals with ALS.

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“…It is known from the social psychology literature that the attention of others fosters mastery of simple tasks but impairs mastery of complex and stressful tasks. This is also known as the theory of social facilitation and inhibition ( Steinmetz and Pfattheicher, 2017 ; Zajonc and Sales, 1966 ). With the ECA study field, these impairment effects have been previously reported on; female participants were hindered by the presence of the ECA when they performed a task that was stressful due to its novelty ( Zanbaka et al, 2004 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can a monologue-style ECA more effectively motivate eHealth users in initial distress than textual guidance?

Scholten

Kelders

Gemert-Pijnen

2021

Heliyon

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Stress is a prevalent issue amongst patients with chronic conditions. As eHealth interventions are gaining importance, it becomes more relevant to invoke the possibilities from the eHealth technology itself to provide motivational acts during experiences of stress as to enhance adherence to the intervention. Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA's) also known as ‘robots on screen’ can potentially provide a remedy. Within our eHealth experiment we applied a between-subjects design and experimentally studied the difference in appraisal of motivation and guidance. We deployed a functionally modest, monologue-style ECA and compared them with textual guidance. This way, we filtered out the considerable positive impact of interactive features that go along with dialogue-style ECA's. The study was carried out amongst eHealth users of which half were deliberately put in a stressful pre-condition. The rationale was two-sided; first, we hypothesized that it would induce a need for motivational support. Second, it would provide a fair representation of eHealth users in real life. Furthermore, we investigated hypothesized positive effects from a gender match between participant and ECA. The results demonstrated preferential ECA effects compared to text but only in the no stress conditions. Although our set-up controlled for user distraction by putting the facilitating ECA in a pane separate from the eHealth environment, we suspect that the enduring visual presence of the ECA during task completion had still inhibited distressed users. Discussing this phenomenon, our stance is that the hypothesis that ECA support is always superior to textual guidance is open for re-evaluation. Text may sometimes serve users equally well because it lacks human-like aspects that in stressful circumstances can become confrontational. We discuss the potential of ECA's to motivate, but also elaborate on the caveats. Further implications for the ECA, intervention adherence, and eHealth study fields are discussed in relation to stress.

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Beyond Social Facilitation: A Review of the Far-Reaching Effects of Social Attention

Cited by 39 publications

References 86 publications

A field study on watching eyes and hand hygiene compliance in a public restroom

A field study on watching eyes and hand hygiene compliance in a public restroom

Habituation of P300 in the Use of P300-based Brain-Computer Interface Spellers: Individuals With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Versus Age-Matched Controls

Can a monologue-style ECA more effectively motivate eHealth users in initial distress than textual guidance?

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