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Abstract
Providing stimuli may facilitate idea generation. Creativity theories often suggest that stimuli unrelated to the problem task will improve creativity, but empirical studies have yielded inconsistent results. We propose a Wikipedia-based approach that is able to identify stimuli at different levels of relatedness. Specifically, we use hypertext links in two sections of the Wikipedia article of a focal concept to identify closely related concepts. Repeating this procedure leads to increasingly remote concepts. Using this approach to obtain stimulus concepts, we examine the effect of stimulus relatedness on idea generation. Our results show that stimulus relatedness is positively related to idea quantity and idea usefulness. While creativity theories often suggest using unrelated stimuli to promote idea novelty, results of this experimental study indicate that remotely related stimuli, not unrelated stimuli, tend to improve idea novelty. Because Wikipedia covers knowledge in almost all disciplines, our Wikipedia-based approach can be used to discover appropriate stimuli and thereby support creative work in most domains of knowledge.
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Notes
1. The Python programs that we used in the study are in the following repository: https://github.com/bertramman/JMIS
2. Compared to in study 1, has an additional column representing the regression of stimulated novelty on experimental conditions. This is to test hypothesis 3. Unlike study 1, study 2’s control condition has three additional ideation steps parallel to stimulus presentation in other conditions. Thus, study 2’s control condition has a counterpart “stimulated novelty”, based on these additional ideation steps. There is no such “stimulated novelty” in study 1’s control condition. Consequently, it is not feasible to do the same regression in in study 1.
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Kai Wang
Kai Wang ([email protected]) is an assistant professor of management in the School of Management and Marketing at Kean University. His research domains include using information systems to support creative work and crowdsourcing innovation. His work appears in Creativity and Innovation Management and Computers in Human Behavior.
Jeffrey V. Nickerson
Jeffrey Nickerson ([email protected]) is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the School of Business, Stevens Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests include creativity support systems, autonomous tools, and collective intelligence. He is currently the principal investigator of three NSF-funded projects related to creativity and productivity in online communities. He has published in MIS Quarterly and ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.