In your group work, explain how strengthening communication and a sense of community as a way to stop free riding and living right contributes to personal fulfillment and societal progress. Emphasize that living right is a basic duty as a member of society, and discuss how it improves and benefits society as a whole.
When I was in high school, my teacher once assigned us to write a report on a school trip in groups. Everyone was very active during the planning process, but when it came time to write the report together, many students were free-riders. I tried to work hard with my friends who were free-riding, but it didn’t change much and only hurt each other’s feelings. As a way to prevent free riding, the teacher had us grade each other after the report was submitted. I knew that my free-riding friends would get lower attitude scores, which would result in lower performance scores, but I felt bad. I kept asking myself, “Why didn’t we let them work harder?”, “Why did we have to be so cruel and grade each other?”, and “If the report scores were high, wouldn’t the attitude scores have that much of an impact?”. Let’s look at how we can more effectively stop free-riding to ensure the best possible grouping, and expand our thinking to answer the question, “Is there a reason to be right?
Before we look at how to stop free riding, we need to look at why it happens in the first place. Generally speaking, students who free ride think that if they don’t do their work, others will do it for them. They may also neglect group work because they think that if others aren’t working hard, they won’t be fully rewarded for their efforts, even if they are. Free riding occurs because the evaluation is not individualized, but collective for the entire group, and there is no goal to make the group work the best it can be. There is a proverb that says, “A thirsty man draws a well.” It means that someone who is desperate to do something will rush to do it. If everyone in the group is thirsty, they will work together to sell the well. If everyone is united in their desire to turn in the best group work, there will be no free riding and everyone will do their part. Based on this, we can think about how to stop free riding.
I think the best way to stop free riding is to instill a sense of community and purpose in the group. We’ll use the communication hypothesis to help us figure out how to do this. The communication hypothesis states that communication makes it possible to know how to behave in a socially desirable way, that communication creates a sense of obligation to do socially beneficial actions, and that communication creates a sense of community among participants. Communication also creates a sense of guilt in the person who is free-riding. Notice that it makes the free-rider feel guilty and the group members feel obligated. To prevent free riding, whenever you have a group meeting, simply have each person announce what they did and say what time they did it and how they did it, from what time to what time. This will be an implicit promise and unspoken pressure to put in at least this much time, even if you don’t specify it. If you’ve been skimping on your work, hearing that someone else has been working so hard will make you feel bad about it and motivate you to work a little harder. Of course, there’s also the possibility of deceiving your team into thinking you’ve spent more time. However, this person may be worried about being found out for exaggerating their efforts, so they may try to produce results worthy of the time they claimed. He or she may also feel more guilty knowing that he or she lied. It’s up to you to try harder or not, but you’re less likely to get a free ride when you communicate than when you don’t. It’s also important to make sure that every time the group meets, they feel like they trust each other, and it’s helpful to have each person talk about how they’re approaching the task, and what their goal is to create the best group work and why. This will help prevent free-riding and ensure that each member of the group is working toward the best outcome with the least amount of effort. Each individual in the group benefits.
If everyone was doing their job and living right, we wouldn’t have to worry about free riding in groups. However, if we see that free riding still happens, it seems that living right doesn’t bring much benefit to each individual. So, do we have a reason to live right? Before answering this question, we need to define what we mean by living right. First, let’s define righteousness as honoring the rules and agreements between members of society and not harming others. Now let’s answer the question. I think ‘there is a reason to live right’. Let’s go back to the group task. First of all, people who take free rides are not righteous. Our perception of such people is usually not good. The wrong person is someone who is somehow harming society, not necessarily me. Once they have harmed me, I am unlikely to return the favor. And even if they haven’t harmed me, if they’ve harmed society, I’m not likely to do them any favors either. Not only does it make me think that harming society can harm me, but I also need help from society, and I’ve harmed someone who needs help. On the other hand, if we repeat the same idea, we are more likely to return the favor to someone who is doing right. The idea behind this is the reciprocity hypothesis. The reciprocity hypothesis states that when you and someone else need to cooperate on something, if they cooperate with you, you will cooperate with them, and if they don’t cooperate with you, you won’t cooperate with them. In other words, if you want someone to help you the next time you need help, you should live right because living right makes it more likely that you will be helped. You don’t have to directly benefit from someone to be helpful. For one thing, living right gives you an internal sense of satisfaction, happiness, and so on. If you look for people in your life who regularly volunteer, you’ll find that they usually have a positive and upbeat personality. A recent study showed that people who volunteer regularly have a much lower rate of premature death than people who exercise regularly, and that people who spend the same amount of money on others have a much higher rate of happiness and healing from illness than those who spend it on themselves. In addition to internal satisfaction, if you live right, the group you are a part of will improve, and the benefits of the group’s improvement will eventually trickle down to you. For example, a department of a company with many people who behave rightly will be more efficient and complete, and the profits generated will allow the company to increase the welfare budget for employees and pay performance bonuses.
Let’s look at the reasons for living right not only from an individual perspective, but also from a societal perspective. If more people live right, society will be better off. Just as it’s hard for a poor person to donate money if they can’t afford food, there will be many people who are not in a position to help themselves. If the right people help them, they can grow to the point where they have the ability to help others, and some of those who are helped will in turn help others. Then the number of right people who can help will increase, and more and more people will be able to live right. On the other hand, if there are many incorrect people, everyone will benefit less. If there are many wrong people, others will be less inclined to help. As a result, fewer people will be able to get help, and this will limit their own opportunities for growth. If fewer people can grow, fewer people will be able to help those who have grown, which in turn will reduce the number of people who can grow, and so on. In the end, society will not progress, so there is a clear reason to live right in order for a society to continue to progress. Of course, in reality, it may not be possible for everyone in a society to live right. However, if even one more person lives right, the society will continue to develop.
Finally, living right is a basic duty as a member of society. Many of the benefits we enjoy as a society are due to the hard work and dedication of many people, past and present. For example, the electricity, water, roads, and public services we use are all the result of the hard work of others. In order to enjoy these benefits, we also have an obligation to contribute to our society. This goes beyond simply obeying the law and means helping others to the best of our ability.
Overall, the way to combat free riding is through better communication, a stronger sense of community, and a greater sense of individual responsibility. In addition, the reasons to live right are personal satisfaction, social progress, and our basic obligations as members of society. For these reasons, we will be able to create a better society, which in turn will benefit us all.
