Group brainstorming not always the best way to generate ideas
Group brainstorming not always the best way to generate ideas
Lindsey
When you need to brainstorm, the best way is to throw a bunch of people into a room and let them toss around ideas, isn’t it?
Not according to research by Charles D. Lindsey, assistant professor of marketing, and H. Shanker Krishnan, associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, which showed that being in a group can actually hinder the number of ideas generated.
“Our study indicated that in some cases, brainstorming is better when individuals do it separately, then come together to share their options,” Lindsey says.
The researchers showed soft drink and water brands to a group of people and then, after a period of time, asked them to think of other brands. Individuals had a more difficult time recalling other brands when in a group setting than when they were asked the same question while alone.
One reason for this discrepancy is that when certain options are repeated by various members of a group, the repetition makes it more difficult to recall other options.
“In a group, there is obviously a greater likelihood of people talking to each other, and in certain cases, these interactions can suppress other thoughts,” Lindsey says.
“You may be thinking of a certain thing, but then someone else says something and it makes you forget what you were thinking about,” Lindsey says, calling this phenomenon “retrieval disruption.”
The researchers said that their study could have implications for business as, similar to the phenomenon of “group think,” it demonstrates that under certain circumstances, groups do not come up with as many ideas together as they would when working individually.
The study appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research.
http://mgt.buffalo.edu/sites/magazine/departments/insights.html
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