Is procrastination among students lower in group work? Evidence from a registered field experiment

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>Research on procrastination mostly focuses on person‐related antecedents and neglects situational and social factors, such as group work. Prior research indicates that conjunctive and additive group work may increase individual effort and performance as compared to individual work.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Aims</jats:title> <jats:p>Based on these findings, we investigate whether conjunctive and additive group work may also help reduce procrastination as compared to individual work.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p> In a registered field experiment, <jats:italic>N</jats:italic>  = 218 students with high levels of trait procrastination worked on an academic task over the course of 10 days in one of three conditions (individual work vs. conjunctive group work vs. additive group work). Dependent variables comprised task procrastination, task performance, and positive and negative task‐related affect. </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Regarding conjunctive group work, results are mixed, with some evidence that conjunctive group work leads to lower procrastination as compared to individual work. Both types of group work resulted in higher negative task‐related affect when assessed prospectively. No other effects were found.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>The findings contribute to the idea that targeted changes in the learning environment, such as the implementation of group work, may help reduce procrastination.</jats:p> </jats:sec>