Oppenheimer Daniel M, Patterson Mark T
Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, 4851 Frew St, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
Mem Cognit. 2025 May 28. doi: 10.3758/s13421-025-01732-x.
This study investigates the impact of internet access on creativity and identifies potential hidden costs of internet use for groups. Using the alternative uses task, we randomized participants (N = 244) into separate conditions to generate ideas for nonstandard uses for one of two common objects-a shield or an umbrella-either with or without internet access. Nominal group analysis reveals that while individual creativity may be enhanced by internet access, groups articulate fewer novel solutions when provided internet access, suggesting that internet access may constrain collective creative fluency. We also ran a reanalysis of previous data sets on creativity and internet use and found robust converging evidence across different paradigms, coders, and contexts. We further explore robustness by examining alternative operationalizations of fluency: quality of responses, as measured by coders' evaluations of effectiveness, novelty, and subjective evaluations of creativity. While overall trends suggest an advantage for subjects who do not have internet access, this patterning depends to some degree on variation among coders. Implications for the way digital tools influence creative processes are discussed.
本研究调查了互联网接入对创造力的影响，并确定了群体使用互联网的潜在隐性成本。我们采用替代用途任务，将参与者（N = 244）随机分为不同组，让他们针对盾牌或雨伞这两种常见物品之一，在有或没有互联网接入的情况下，想出非标准用途的创意。名义群体分析表明，虽然互联网接入可能会提高个人创造力，但在提供互联网接入时，群体提出的新颖解决方案较少，这表明互联网接入可能会限制集体创造性流畅性。我们还对先前关于创造力和互联网使用的数据集进行了重新分析，发现在不同范式、编码者和背景下有有力的趋同证据。我们通过检查流畅性的替代操作化方法进一步探究稳健性：由编码者对有效性、新颖性的评估以及对创造力的主观评估来衡量的反应质量。虽然总体趋势表明没有互联网接入的受试者具有优势，但这种模式在一定程度上取决于编码者之间的差异。本文讨论了数字工具对创意过程影响方式的相关启示。
