‘‘Switching On” creativity: Task switching can increase creativity by reducing cognitive fixation Jackson G. Lu ⇑ , Modupe Akinola, Malia F. Mason Columbia Business School, Columbia University, United States article info Article history: Received 20 February 2016 Revised 16 December 2016 Accepted 18 January 2017 Keywords: Task switching Creativity Fixation Divergent thinking Convergent thinking Problem solving abstract Whereas past research has focused on the downsides of task switching, the present research uncovers a potential upside: increased creativity. In two experiments, we show that task switching can enhance two principal forms of creativity—divergent thinking (Study 1) and convergent thinking (Study 2)—in part because temporarily setting a task aside reduces cognitive fixation. Participants who continually alter- nated back and forth between two creativity tasks outperformed both participants who switched between the tasks at their discretion and participants who attempted one task for the first half of the allotted time before switching to the other task for the second half. Importantly, Studies 3a–3d reveal that people overwhelmingly fail to adopt a continual-switch approach when incentivized to choose a task switching strategy that would maximize their creative performance. These findings provide insights into how individuals can ‘‘switch on” creativity when navigating multiple creative tasks. Ó 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In a world of hustle and bustle, switching back and forth between tasks—‘‘task switching”—has become the work style of countless individuals (e.g., Hallowell, 2005; Perlow, 1999). Bom- barded with emails, phone calls, and meetings, managers and employees alike constantly shift their attention from one task to another (Rosen, 2008). Task switching is especially common among senior executives due to their numerous responsibilities (Bandiera, Prat, Sadun, & Wulf, 2014; Dean & Webb, 2011; Ocasio, 1997). In fact, the propensity to task switch emerges as early as adolescence: the average 7th–12th grader estimates spending 60% of the time they set aside for homework switching between homework and other activities (e.g., email, instant mes- saging; Foehr, 2006). Not surprisingly, the increasing prevalence of task switching has prompted substantial research on its psychological conse- quences. For instance, past research has revealed that task switch- ing increases susceptibility to distraction (Leroy, 2009; Ophir, Nass, & Wagner, 2009), facilitates error-making (Monsell, 2003), slows execution (Rogers & Monsell, 1995), diminishes learning (Hembrooke & Gay, 2003), induces forgetting (Einstein, McDaniel, Williford, Pagan, & Dismukes, 2003; Finstad, Bink, McDaniel, & Einstein, 2006), lowers writing quality (Foroughi, Werner, Nelson, & Boehm-Davis, 2014), and heightens social anxiety (Becker, Alzahabi, & Hopwood, 2013). While these studies clearly show the negative consequences of task switching, they leave open the question of whether there are any benefits of adopting a task-switching approach to one’s work. Using both divergent and convergent thinking measures of creativity, the present research demonstrates that continually switching between tasks can enhance creative performance by reducing cognitive fixation. Importantly, we also provide evidence that people undervalue the benefits of continually switching between creative tasks: when incentivized to maximize their per- formance on multiple creative tasks, people overwhelmingly fail to select the most effective work approach (i.e., continual task switch- ing), suggesting that creative performance may improve if people are encouraged to switch between tasks at a greater frequency. The present work contributes to research on workplace creativ- ity in several important ways. First, it is among the first to empir- ically demonstrate an upside of task switching, while past research has almost exclusively focused on its downsides. As a result, the current findings offer a more balanced way of conceptualizing the effects of task switching. Second, although many modern employees increasingly switch among multiple tasks (Rosen, 2008) and although creativity is increasingly valuable to organiza- tions (IBM, 2010), the scholarly literature is nearly silent about whether and how a task-switching approach shapes people’s http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.01.005 0749-5978/Ó 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Columbia Business School, Columbia University, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, United States. E-mail addresses: glu18@gsb.columbia.edu (J.G. Lu), ma2916@gsb.columbia.edu (M. Akinola), mfm2139@gsb.columbia.edu (M.F. Mason). Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 139 (2017) 63–75 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp