Abstract: Social loafing is a reduction in motivation and effort when individuals work collectively compared with when work individually or coactively. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some important aspects about the theory and research of social loafing, presenting the concept, origin and development, theorical explanation, antecedents, formation models, summarizes some drawbacks in this field, several interesting directions for future research are raised

Key words: social loafing, social impact, formation model of social loafing