Gender composition mediates social facilitation effect in co-action condition.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Human Physiology

Background:

• Co-action, working alongside others, is a prevalent work organization mode.
• The impact of opposite-sex co-actors (OCs) on social facilitation and performance remains underexplored.
• Understanding gender composition effects is crucial for optimizing collaborative environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the gender composition of co-actors influences the intensity of the social facilitation effect.
• To compare the social facilitation effect across different co-actor gender mixes.
• To explore the underlying physiological mechanisms associated with co-actor gender.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Participants performed visual search tasks alone and in various co-action gender compositions.
• Experiment 2: Participants completed modular arithmetic tasks alone, with same-sex co-actors (SCs), and with OCs.
• Physiological measures included electroencephalogram (EEG) activity and salivary cortisol levels.

Main Results:

• The social facilitation effect was significantly stronger in the presence of OCs compared to SCs.
• EEG data showed lower alpha band power and higher beta band power with OCs versus SCs.
• Normalized cortisol levels were elevated in the presence of OCs compared to SCs.

Conclusions:

• Co-actor gender composition modulates the intensity of the social facilitation effect.
• Opposite-sex co-actors elicit distinct neurophysiological and hormonal responses compared to same-sex co-actors.
• These findings illuminate the mechanisms by which gender influences social facilitation in co-action settings.