The purpose of this study was to test the prediction that social facilitation (improvement in performance on a simple task in the presence of a female E) occurs when an audience is associated with either positive or negative experiences. 30 preschool boys and 30 preschool girls performed a simple pulling task in the presence and absence of the E associated with either positive, neutral, or negative experiences. A decrease in social facilitation when the audience was associated with positive experiences was observed and was interpreted as evidence that an audience may reduce, rather than induce, motivation.
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