Effects of Problem Scope and Creativity Instructions on Idea Generation and Selection

Abstract

The basic assumption of brainstorming is that increased quantity of ideas results in increased generation as well as selection of creative ideas. Although previous research suggests that idea quantity correlates strongly with the number of good ideas generated, quantity has been found to be unrelated to the quality of selected ideas. This article reports the results of a brainstorming experiment aimed at increasing the average creativity of ideas and creative idea selection (rather than idea quantity). Problem scope (narrow vs. broad) and creativity instructions (emphasis on creativity vs. personal relevance) were manipulated. Results show that both narrow (vs. broad) problems and creativity (vs. relevance) instructions led to the generation of ideas that were more creative. However, only under creativity instructions did participants select more creative ideas.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant (NWO grant 410-21-010) from The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. We thank Benjamin de Boer for his assistance in coding the data, and Anna Borleffs for her assistance in collecting the data. The study reported in this article was conducted while Dr Eric F. Rietzschel was at the Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam, and is part of his doctoral dissertation.

Notes

Note. Maximum value = 5; N = 85; standard deviations are in parentheses.

^{a, b} Means within a row with different superscripts are different from each other with p < .05.

^{c, d} Means within a row with different superscripts are different from each other with p < .1.

Note. Maximum value = 5; N = 85; standard deviations are in parentheses.