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The mirage of agreeableness: A study of the impact of free-riding behavior on the sucker-effect
Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, Psychology.
Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, Psychology.
2024 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

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. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. , p. 20
Keywords [en]
Sucker-effect, free-rider, social loafing, agreeableness, group work, in-group, out-group, dyads, motivational loss
National Category
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-53414OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-53414DiVA, id: diva2:1833241
Subject / course
Psychology
Supervisors
Available from: 2024-02-01 Created: 2024-01-31 Last updated: 2025-10-07Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf