Directing idea generation using brainstorming with specific novelty goals

In a field experiment with students, we show that a specific, difficult novelty goal, whether presented alone or in conjunction with brainstorming rules, improves novelty and creativity in individuals’ idea generation relative to brainstorming rules alone when goal commitment is high. Because creati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inMotivation and emotion Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 135 - 143
Main Authors Litchfield, Robert C., Fan, Jinyan, Brown, Vincent R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston Springer US 01.06.2011
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Brainstorming
Brainstorms
Clinical Psychology
Creativity
Directing
Goal setting
Goals
Idea generation
Original Paper
Personality and Social Psychology
Psychology
Usefulness
Brainstorming
Goals
Idea generation
Goal commitment
Creativity
Novelty
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In a field experiment with students, we show that a specific, difficult novelty goal, whether presented alone or in conjunction with brainstorming rules, improves novelty and creativity in individuals’ idea generation relative to brainstorming rules alone when goal commitment is high. Because creativity is often correlated with idea quantity in brainstorming studies, we controlled for idea quantity in order to demonstrate that the improvement is not due to changes in the number of ideas generated. These findings suggest that specific, difficult goals beyond quantity can improve idea generation. We also separately measured practicality and effectiveness of participants’ ideas. The results of these analyses suggest that goal commitment might be an important determinant of usefulness, and deserves additional attention in studies of idea generation.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0146-7239
1573-6644
DOI:10.1007/s11031-011-9203-3