... illustrated that having slow music playing in the background improved performance of the task compared to performing it in silence, while fast music worsened performance. The implications of this study, its limitations and suggestions of follow up studies will be further discussed. Contents Introduction Social influence describes how other people around us can influence our actions. It is especially relevant in situations where groups of people are performing a task together, as discovered by Triplett in one of the first social influence experiments, conducted in 1898. He found that when children were asked to spin a fishing reel, it was spun faster when they were performing in groups than on their own. This effect was termed 'social facilitation', as the presence of others appeared to help, or facilitate, the person performing the task. This idea was also supported by Allport (1920), who demonstrated that college students performing multiplication tests also worked faster ...

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