Köhler Effect

The Köhler effect is a kind of group motivation gain effectan instance where a person works harder as a member of a group than when working individually. In the Köhler effect, that person is, to some degree, a “weak link” for the groupthat is, if he or she fails to do well, the group will not do well. There are many tasks where a bad performance by a single member can ensure a bad group performance; social psychologists refer to these as conjunctive group tasks. For example, a mountain-climbing team that is tethered together cannot climb any faster than the slowest climber in the group. The Köhler effect is the finding that incapable membersthe “weak links”tend to exert extra effort, especially at such conjunctive tasks; ...