Banyak orang menghindari bekerja dalam kelompok karena mereka tidak mau menghadapi ‘free-riders’ atau ‘social-loafers’. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti efek dari verbal encouragement terhadap fenomena social loafing. Dengan menggunakan 2 x 2 independent-groups design, 40 mahasiswa mengikuti penelitian ini dan diminta untuk memikirkan sebanyak-banyaknya kegunaan sebuah sendok. Partisipan penelitian dibagi ke dalam kelompok collective (di mana partisipan bekerja sama) atau coactive (di mana partisipan bekerja sendiri), dan ke dalam encouragement present (partisipan mendapatkan kata penyemangat) atau encouragement absent (partisipan tidak mendapat kata penyemangat). Independent – groups t-tests menunjukkan bahwa peserta di kelompok collective menghasilkan lebih sedikit kegunaan sendok daripada peserta di kondisi coactive, menyiratkan bahwa social loafing terjadi. Tidak ada perbedaan antara kelompok collective-encouragement present dan collective-encouragement absent. Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa verbal encouragement mungkin tidak mengurangi fenomena social loafing. Penelitian selanjutnya disarankan untuk mempertimbangkan motivasi internal dan eksternal awal serta tingkat kesulitan tugas yang dirasakan peserta penelitian.

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Many people avoid working in groups because they do not want to encounter ‘free-riders’ or ‘social-loafers’. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of verbal encouragement on social loafing. Using a 2x2 independent-groups design, 40 university students participated in the study and were asked to generate as many ideas as possible about the different uses of a spoon. Participants were sorted to either collective (i.e., participants are working together) or coactive (i.e., participants are working individually) group, and to either an encouragement present (i.e., participants were given encouraging words) or an encouragement absent group (i.e., participants were not given encouraging words). Independent-group t-tests revealed that participants in collective condition generated fewer ideas than those in coactive condition, suggesting that social loafing has occurred. There is no difference between collective-encouragement present and collective-encouragement absent conditions. This suggests that verbal encouragement might not serve to moderate social loafing. Future research should take participants’ initial intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and their perceived task difficulty into consideration.