In group work, the sucker-effect is a motivational loss in which effort is reduced due to feeling taken advantage of when other group members intentionally avoid work, known as free-riding. No previous studies on the sucker-effect have investigated moderating factors that can be attributed to the free-rider. The purpose of this study was to explore if agreeable behavior of a free-rider would moderate the sucker-effect, and if so, to what extent. Using an experimental design, students (n = 20) at Södertörn University served as participants. A systematic allocation toone of two conditions was used, the less agreeable and more agreeable. During the experiment a participant and a confederate worked in dyadson a disjunctive cooperative jigsaw puzzle task. The manipulation was the free-riding confederate's level of agreeableness. Self-rated effort andactual performance were measured. Using Mann-Whitney U-tests (α =.05, two-tailed), no significant differences were found in either of thedependent variables. In fact, by and large, no sucker-effect was observed at all. Other than manipulating the confederate's level of agreeableness, the design allowed for much more interaction in the dyads than previous studies on the sucker-effect have. It is discussed whether this interaction might have created an ingroup feeling, leading to the prevention of asucker-effect. In this study it thus seems that the free-rider's level of agreeableness does not moderate the sucker-effect. Also, meaningful interaction between group members might prevent a sucker-effect fromoccurring at all. However, due to the study's small sample size, theseresults are not definitive and should be taken with caution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-53414 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Suljakovic, Adnan, Westerman, Gustav |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Psykologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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