social facilitation.

The mere presence of others can significantly enhance our performance. Social psychologists have termed this social facilitation. Working with others doing the same simple task on a production line produces better performance than working alone. The presence of others also inhibits performance, as in the case of public speaking, through a process called social inhibition. It is clear from many studies that on simple tasks performance is facilitated by the presence of others but on more difficult tasks it is impaired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]