{"id":24356,"date":"2021-01-28T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T19:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=24356"},"modified":"2021-01-29T18:24:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T22:24:47","slug":"brainstorming-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Brainstorming: Research Shows It&#8217;s Ineffective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-brainstorm-effectively\/\">brainstorming<\/a> and is it effective? What does brainstorming research say about this collaborative strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brainstorming is based on the theory that groups come up with better ideas than individuals working independently. However, brainstorming research has shown that this exercise is ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to see what brainstorming research says about why brainstorm sessions don&#8217;t always work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Brainstorming and Brainstorming Research<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brainstorming in a group, another favorite of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/causes-of-groupthink\/\">Groupthink<\/a> or team-oriented culture, also fails to deliver more creative or better ideas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alex Osborn, an advertising man and author in the 1940s and \u201850s, came up with the idea of brainstorming because he was concerned that employees at his ad agency weren\u2019t producing very creative material. He believed this was because they were afraid to share their ideas for fear of judgment, so he created a discussion process intended to remove the threat of criticism. The rules were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Don\u2019t criticize.<\/li><li>Don\u2019t hold back.<\/li><li>The more ideas you have the better.<\/li><li>Build on others\u2019 ideas.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With this process, Osborn believed that groups produced better ideas than people working alone. He made grandiose claims for it and other companies picked up the idea. Brainstorming soon was incorporated into the business <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/teamwork-culture\/\">culture of teamwork<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it doesn\u2019t actually work as advertised. In 1963, a study of mining company employees by a psychology professor showed that people working on their own, whether they were executives or research scientists, produced more ideas than those working in groups and the ideas were of the same or better quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Brainstorming research over the last forty years has also underscored that brainstorming doesn\u2019t produce better ideas<\/strong>. Among the findings: idea-generating performance gets worse as brainstorming groups get bigger. For instance, groups of nine produce fewer and worse ideas than groups of six; groups of six do worse than groups of four. Organizational psychologist Adrian Furnham concluded that based on the scientific evidence, businesses would be crazy to use brainstorming. When you want efficiency or creativity, he said, it\u2019s better to let people work alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to brainstorming research, there are three reasons brainstorming doesn\u2019t work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Some people stay on the sidelines and let others do all the talking.<\/li><li>Only one person can talk at a time, while others have to be silent.<\/li><li>In spite of the rules to suspend judgment, people still hold back for fear of looking stupid.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Brainstorming research has shown that group influence also can hinder discovering the best ideas: people tend to go along with others, even when they know the others are wrong, in order to fit in. In fact, the fear of rejection can be so strong that it makes us change our perceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the evidence against brainstorming, it remains popular. Studies show that <strong>participants usually believe their group performed much better than it actually did<\/strong>. The reason may be that it makes people feel connected\u2014which may have value\u2014but it doesn\u2019t inspire good ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Online Brainstorming<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In contrast to brainstorming in a group meeting, brainstorming online can be effective<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When brainstorming online, well-managed groups are more effective than individuals at coming up with viable ideas. Unlike face-to-face brainstorming, research shows that the larger the online brainstorming group, the better it does. The same applies to online collaboration on academic research. Professors who work together online produce research that has greater impact than the work of those meeting face-to-face or working alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is brainstorming and is it effective? What does brainstorming research say about this collaborative strategy? Brainstorming is based on the theory that groups come up with better ideas than individuals working independently. However, brainstorming research has shown that this exercise is ineffective. Keep reading to see what brainstorming research says about why brainstorm sessions don&#8217;t always work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,30],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-24356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-work","tag-quiet-the-power-of-introverts","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brainstorming: Research Shows It&#039;s Ineffective - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where do you think the best ideas come from? According to brainstorming research, it doesn&#039;t come from group brainstorming. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brainstorming: Research Shows It&#039;s Ineffective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where do you think the best ideas come from? According to brainstorming research, it doesn&#039;t come from group brainstorming. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-28T19:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-29T22:24:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/idenifying-okrs-measure-what-matters-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1709\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Brainstorming: Research Shows It&#8217;s Ineffective\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T19:54:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-29T22:24:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\"},\"wordCount\":577,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/idenifying-okrs-measure-what-matters-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Quiet: The Power of Introverts\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/\",\"name\":\"Brainstorming: Research Shows It's Ineffective - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/brainstorming-research\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/idenifying-okrs-measure-what-matters-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-28T19:54:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-29T22:24:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Where do you think the best ideas come from? 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