People systematically overlook subtractive changes


Resource | v1 | created by janarez |
Type Paper
Created 2021-04
Identifier ISSN: 1476-4687

Description

Improving objects, ideas or situations—whether a designer seeks to advance technology, a writer seeks to strengthen an argument or a manager seeks to encourage desired behaviour—requires a mental search for possible changes. We investigated whether people are as likely to consider changes that subtract components from an object, idea or situation as they are to consider changes that add new components. People typically consider a limited number of promising ideas in order to manage the cognitive burden of searching through all possible ideas, but this can lead them to accept adequate solutions without considering potentially superior alternatives. Here we show that people systematically default to searching for additive transformations.

Relations

relates to Decision-making

In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a b...

relates to Simplicity

Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to understand or explain seems sim...

reviewed in Our Brain Typically Overlooks This Brilliant Problem-Solving Strategy

People often limit their creativity by continually adding new features to a design rather than removi...


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