Effects of social influence on idea selection in creativity workshops. (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fleury, Sylvain; Agnès, Aurélien; Cados, Léa; Denis-Lutard, Quentin; Duchêne, Clément; Rigaud, Nathan; Richir, Simon
• Is Part Of: Thinking skills and creativity. Volume 37(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: Brainstorming -- Social influence -- Ideation -- Social proof -- Convergence -- Idea selection -- Brainwriting -- Sticky notes -- Innovation -- Creativity; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Critical thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Creative thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Thinking -- Periodicals; Creativeness -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Pensée -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Créativité (Éducation) -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; 370.15205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100691
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1871-1871

Abstract

Highlights: Social influence bias ideas selection after brainstormings. Participants tends to select the same ideas as their peers. This effect is considered to be based on social proof phenomenon Abstract: Different variants of brainstormings and brainwritings exist and are regularly used in companies. Several phenomena of social influence in the idea generation stage have been highlighted. The hypothesis of this research was that under specific conditions, social influence biases the idea selection stage. An experimental study was conducted with 30 participants who had to select ideas. The results indicate that seeing another person's choice of ideas is enough to influence participants' choices and thus bias their responses. This result is interpreted as the consequence of a phenomenon of social proof: when participants do not know what to choose, they decide to rely on the choice of their partner. Methodological recommendations are provided to avoid this bias during ideation sessions.