Lateral Thinking " We Underestimate Our Own Ability to Generate Ideas "

Lateral Thinking
" We Underestimate Our Own Ability to Generate Ideas "

Research Finding :

People consistently underestimate the number of creative ideas they can come up with .

Sample Size & Experiment :
Step 1 :
In a study they conducted, 24 students were given 10 minutes to think of dishes to serve at a festival dinner.
Step 2 :
Next, the students had to predict how many more ideas they could generate if they kept going for 10 more minutes.
Step 3 :
Then they were asked to try to generate ideas for another 10 minutes.
Finding :
On average, they predicted they could generate around 10 new ideas if they persisted — but they were actually able to come up with around 15 !!
Several similar follow-up studies produced the same result !

The researchers also found that the ideas generated while persisting were, on average, rated more creative than those generated initially.

Conclusion drawn :
The authors say that we underestimate the benefits of persistence because creative challenges feel difficult !

Research Conducted by :
Brian J. Lucas of the Booth School of Business and Loran Nordgren of the Kellogg School of Management