Tasks and Task Consequences as Factors in Individual and Group brainstorming

Summary The present study investigated the effects of relevant versus irrelevant tasks and task consequences on individual and group brainstorming performance. As hypothesized, significantly fewer ideas were produced by groups than by individuals, and by subjects working on an inherently salient, or “relevant,” task, than on an innocuous, or “irrelevant,” task. The effect of knowing that the ideas might actually be used by a familiar organization depressed brainstorming effectiveness further. It was concluded that the ability to brainstorm is impaired when the task is one in which people are genuinely interested and which they care about.