Brainstorming rules given together boost idea elaboration

Since Osborn (1953) introduced brainstorming rules—postpone evaluation, generate many ideas, encourage wild ideas and combine and improve ideas—they have been widely used to enhance group creativity. Despite their central role in brainstorming research, these rules have rarely been empirically tested, and no prior study has examined the effects on elaborating and selecting ideas when presenting them either simultaneously or sequentially. In the present study, participants generated ideas using an electronic brainwriting system in which each group member was identified by a distinctive colored virtual sticky note. Groups were instructed to apply either all four rules at the start of a 20-min session or the first three rules initially and the fourth after ten minutes. Results revealed that idea elaboration and idea selection in group projects were higher when rules were presented simultaneously rather than sequentially, regardless of group membership or the number of details/words in the ideas produced. Additional analyses were conducted on aggregated data from a comparable sample working anonymously (all members assigned the same-colored virtual sticky note). They showed that more elaborated ideas were generated when the rules were presented simultaneously, particularly under conditions of anonymity. In line with Osborn’s original proposals, these findings demonstrate that providing all four brainstorming rules together rather than sequentially enhances idea elaboration and promotes the selection of elaborated ideas in group projects.