Editing Diffusion of responsibility (section)

===Social loafing===
[[Social loafing]] is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Karau | first1 = S. | last2 = Williams | first2 = K. | s2cid = 12694148 | year = 1993 | title = Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 65 | issue = 4| pages = 681–706 | doi=10.1037/0022-3514.65.4.681}}</ref> [[Social impact theory]] considers the extent to which individuals can be viewed as either sources or targets of social influence. When individuals work collectively, the demands of an outside source of social influence (e.g., an experimenter or one's boss) are diffused across multiple targets (i.e., diffusion of responsibility across all of the group members), leading to decreased levels of effort. On individual tasks, no such diffusion takes place, and individuals work hard, as there is no diffusion of responsibility. The division of social influence is thought to be a function of the strength, immediacy, and number of sources and targets present, and is predicted to follow an inverse power function specifying that each additional group member will have less influence as group size increases. Diffusion of responsibility is a direct cause of social loafing, as when diffusion of responsibility is occurring within a group, group members do not feel as responsible for their actions (or lack of action) and are much more likely to engage in social loafing.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Karau | first1 = S. J. | last2 = Williams | first2 = K. D. | year = 1995 | title = Social loafing: Research findings, implications, and future directions | journal = Current Directions in Psychological Science | volume = 4 | issue = 5| pages = 134–140 | doi=10.1111/1467-8721.ep10772570| s2cid = 143679359 }}</ref>