Technological innovation in group creativity

This chapter presents on-going research dedicated to augmenting creativity through innovative technologies. Our hypotheses draw on the pros and cons of the Brainstorming paradigm to strengthen the former and overcome the latter. The main efficiency factors we are trying to support are Cognitive stimulation, Social comparison, and Group facilitation, while trying to circumvent Production blocking, Social loafing, and Self-censorship. The first technology reviewed is Electronic Brainstorming Systems: it was shown that such devices enable groups, even large ones, to avoid production blocking. However, it may also increase social loafing, which is detrimental to creativity. We then introduce Interactive Tabletop Brainstorming with which groups can conciliate individual reflection, idea sharing, and social setting. We show that this technology reduces social loafing and we provide interface designs that further support cognitive stimulation, social comparison and group facilitation. This series of experiments also highlight a new efficiency factor for creativity, namely the Fun factor: the use of innovative technology in itself introduces playfulness, which seems to increase engagement and creative performance. Finally, we report on a recent series of experiments exploring Avatar-Mediated Creativity as a means to counter self-censorship through anonymity and enhance creativity through avatars’ appearance. The results confirm that the choice of avatars in virtual brainstorming greatly influences creativity through processes such as self-perception, priming, and social identity. In many respects, avatars and virtual environments offer a new promising tool to support group creativity. We conclude on the potential impact of these findings on real-world innovation challenges.