course, the social matching effect can have the opposite effect, by encouraging quieter or
less creative people to contribute as freely as other participants, but this positive effect
tends to be weaker than the negative effect, for the simple reason that it’s easier to
contribute less.
There’s also evidence that people are bad at judging the level of their _7________ to a
brainstorming session. In one experiment, for example, a group of four participants each
believed they had contributed around 36% of the ideas at a recent brainstorming session,
even though that it mathematically impossible.
A fourth potential problem is ______8_______, or being worried about what other
people will think or say about your ideas. It’s one thing to avoid openly criticising other
people’s ideas, but it’s much more difficult to avoid all signs of judgement. People may
express criticism with a simple facial expression, a slight
laugh or even a pause between hearing an idea and responding. And even if nobody is
negative in any way, it’s still difficult to accept that nobody is thinking negative thoughts
about your crazy idea.
A much more serious problem is called ___9____. This happens when only one
person at a time is allowed to talk. If that person talks for too long, you may forget your
own idea, or decide not to express it when you finally get your chance. This problem
probably happens all the time: ideas come and go every second, but it is terribly easy to
get distracted, especially when we are listening politely to a colleague expressing his or
her own idea.
Finally, there is a problem called the ______10___________, where participants think
the meeting is more effective than it really is. For example, it can be very difficult to
judge when the meeting’s objectives have been met: how many ideas should be on the
board? How many of those ideas need to be serious proposals, as compared to lists of
random words and thoughts? Without concrete criteria for assessing success, groups tend
to believe they’ve achieved their goal far too soon.
In other words, instead of making people more creative, the act of listening to each
other’s ideas may actually make them try less hard, withhold their own ideas and give up
too soon.
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