Cognitive and social comparison processes in brainstorming q Karen Leggett Dugosh 1 , Paul B. Paulus * Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19528, Arlington, TX 76016, USA Received 10 May 2002; revised 3 May 2004 Available online 12 August 2004 Abstract This brainstorming experiment assessed the extent to which idea exposure produced cognitive stimulation and social comparison effects. One hundred and sixty participants were exposed to either a high or low number of common or unique ideas. The partic- ipantsÕ likelihood of engaging in social comparison processes (high or low) was also manipulated through instructional sets. The results indicated both cognitive stimulation and social comparison effects. Exposure to a high number of ideas and to common ideas enhanced the generation of additional ideas. The effects of exposure to a high number of ideas was greater under high than under low social comparison conditions. Finally, recall of exposed ideas was related to enhanced idea generation. These results are con- sistent with the social/cognitive influence model of group brainstorming (Paulus, Dugosh, Dzindolet, Putman, & Coskun, 2002). Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Groups; Creativity; Brainstorming; Electronic brainstorming; Social comparison; Cognitive processes Group brainstorming is a popular method for gener- ating creative ideas in organizations. Osborn (1957) developed the brainstorming technique and asserted that many ideas could be produced through its use. He be- lieved that the effectiveness of brainstorming could be attributed to both cognitive (e.g., association) and social (e.g., social facilitation, competition) processes. A great deal of research has tested OsbornÕs claims about the effectiveness of group brainstorming. Many studies have verified that groups generate more ideas when they use OsbornÕs brainstorming rules than when they do not (Johnson, Parrott, & Stratten, 1968; Mea- dow, Parnes, & Reese, 1959; Parnes & Meadow, 1959). However, when the performance of interactive brain- storming groups is compared to the pooled performance of the same number of individuals brainstorming alone (nominal groups), nominal groups outperform interac- tive groups in both the quantity and quality of ideas generated (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991; Paulus, Larey, & Ortega, 1995). Several so- cial and procedural factors have been identified as po- tential causes for this productivity gap, including evaluation apprehension (Camacho & Paulus, 1995; Collaros & Anderson, 1969), social loafing and free-rid- ing (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987; Paulus, Dzindolet, Poletes, & Camacho, 1993), production blocking (Diehl & Stro- ebe, 1987), and downward performance matching (Pau- lus & Dzindolet, 1993). Most brainstorming research has focused on social factors in the productivity gap between interactive and nominal groups (see Paulus, Dugosh, Dzindolet, Putman, & Coskun, 2002). However, researchers have recently be- gun to investigate cognitive factors as well, in particular the extent to which idea exchange influences idea genera- tion (Dugosh, Paulus, Roland, & Yang, 2000; Nijstad, Diehl, & Stroebe, 2003). Our past research has provided evidence for both social and cognitive factors in brain- storming, and we have incorporated both of these ele- ments into an integrative model (Paulus et al., 2002). 0022-1031/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2004.05.009 q This paper was based in part on a dissertation by the first author under the direction of the second author. This research was supported by GroupSystem.comÕs provision of its GroupSystems software. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: paulus@uta.edu (P.B. Paulus). 1 Present address: Treatment Research Institute, Philadelphia, PA. www.elsevier.com/locate/jesp Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 41 (2005) 313–320