Why we work less hard when we are in a group

The Rope-Pulling Experiments of Max Ringelmann

In the late nineteenth century, French agricultural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann set out to measure the mechanical efficiency of draft animals, machines, and human laborers. Ringelmann, who directed the National Agronomic Institute in Paris, was interested in how physical work could be maximized. To test human output, he instructed male volunteers to pull on a heavy rope connected to a dynamometer—a device designed to record the exact pulling force exerted. Ringelmann measured each participant pulling individually, establishing a baseline of maximum solo effort, and then measured the force generated when people pulled together in groups of varying sizes.

Simple arithmetic suggested that if one person exerted a force of roughly sixty-three kilograms, a group of two would pull with double that force, and eight people would produce eight times the baseline. Instead, Ringelmann discovered a sharp, inverse relationship between group size and individual performance. While the total collective force increased as more people joined the rope, the average output per person steadily dropped. In pairs, individuals pulled at roughly ninety-three percent of their individual capacity; in groups of three, that fell to eighty-five percent; and in a group of eight, individual output fell to nearly half of what it was when pulling alone.

Ringelmann documented these findings between 1882 and 1887, though his research was not formally published until 1913 in the agricultural journal Annales de l'Institut National Agronomique. His observations challenged a fundamental assumption about human teamwork: combining the efforts of multiple workers did not produce a linear increase in productivity. Instead, the addition of team members triggered an immediate loss in efficiency, an outcome that would later be termed the Ringelmann effect.