teams were four-person and half eight-person) which were randomly assigned to either a co-located or distributed setting. The participants were to complete a task that asked them to act as a board of directors of a winery with an image problem. They were to find and discuss alternatives, and at the end submit their alternative with rationale. Co-located groups worked at a table together, while distributed groups did the same task at separate computers that allowed for electronic, networked communication. The same technology was used by both co-located and distributed groups. Chidambaram and Tung found that group size mattered immensely in a group's performance. The smaller the group, the more likely each member was to participate, regardless of range (dispersed or co-located). The main difference stated between distributed and co-located groups was the social pressure at least to appear busy that is present in co-located groups. When others are present, people feel the need to look as if they are working hard, while those who are not in the presence of others do not. Gender and social loafing In 1985, Gabrenya, Wang, and Latane found that in both Chinese and American cultures, social loafing varies between men and women. Women expressed less social loafing than men across different cultures. The authors argued that regardless of the change in social roles, genetic, and historical roles continue to make men more individualistic and women more relational. In 1999, Naoki Kugihara conducted another study in Japan on social loafing tendencies using similar methods as Max Ringelmann's rope-pulling experiment. He discovered that, when in a group, 40 percent more men exhibited less effort when performing the task than women, and attributed the difference to the tendency to have an interdependent self-concept. Effect of culture In 1989, Christopher P. Earley hypothesized that social loafing would be mitigated in collectivist cultures that focused more on achievement of the group than the individual. He conducted a study in the United States and China, which are considered to be opposites in their cultural valuation of groups (with the U.S. being more individualistic and China being more collectivist), in order to determine if a difference in social loafing was present between the two cultures. Earley formed groups from both countries similar in demographics and in time spent with each other (participants in each of the groups had known each other for three to five weeks). Each group was tasked