Abstract
The purpose of the experiment was to examine the effects of the presence of an observer on self-presentation in a delayed choice reaction setting. Sixty-seven university undergraduates were divided into two groups. Group 1 was given a delayed choice reaction task under two different conditons, first with the subjects in isolation and second with the subjects in front of an audience. Group 2 was administered a delayed choice reaction task only in a condition of isolation. After the subjects had made the choice, they were asked both to rate how confident they felt that their response was correct and to choose whether they wished to see the results on a CRT. Latency was found to be substantially longer in the presence of an audience in the case of rating times (Fig. 1), especially when the subjects judged their choice “extremly confident” (Fig. 2). The results arediscussed in terms of the drive and self-presentational theories of social facilitaion.
