We are able to all agree that the web is an endless repository of knowledge. However new analysis out of Carnegie Mellon College (CMU) has discovered that, in some instances, “Googling” can get in the best way of a superb brainstorm session and truly hinder creativity.
In a current examine printed within the journal Reminiscence & Cognition, researchers requested members to brainstorm new methods to make use of one in all two frequent objects—a protect or an umbrella—both with or with out web entry. In some trials, examine members may entry Google search; in different trials, they couldn’t use a search engine.
Of the teams, these with entry to Google, for essentially the most half, got here up with the identical frequent solutions, typically in the identical precise order.
“[That’s because] they relied on Google, whereas non-Google customers got here up with extra distinct solutions,” defined lead examine writer Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor at CMU’s Division of Social and Resolution Sciences.
That’s to say, researchers discovered that whereas particular person creativity could also be enhanced by web entry, teams articulate fewer novel options when offered web entry, suggesting that web entry might constrain collective inventive fluency.
Stated one other method: “Pondering outdoors the field means pondering outdoors the search engine.”
This may very well be an instance of “fixation results”: Exhibiting a doable answer to members influences them to think about comparable solutions, and likewise obstructs them from pondering of latest or completely different solutions. For instance, Oppenheimer mentioned, when given a immediate equivalent to “belongings you would possibly unfold,” members with entry to Google would possibly counsel “butter” or “jam,” whereas others who lack web search entry would possibly counsel one thing alongside the strains of “illness” or “rumors.”
Oppenheimer mentioned we must always settle for that web entry is altering the best way folks suppose and resolve issues, however as a substitute of banning serps, we must always learn to use them higher. “The web isn’t making us dumb, however we could also be utilizing it in ways in which aren’t useful,” he added.
Oppenheimer and examine coauthor Mark Patterson, an assistant educating professor at CMU’s Division of Social and Resolution Sciences, suppose completely different immediate engineering methods would possibly result in completely different, even higher, outcomes.
“Our hope is that by finding out how human thought interacts with know-how use, we are able to work out methods to glean the very best of the web whereas minimizing the unfavorable penalties,” Patterson mentioned.
Their recommendation: Do some offline brainstorming earlier than turning to the web.
