Anonymity in Brainstorming

Research on the effect of anonymity on individual’s creativity in idea generation sessions is inconclusive: anonymous brainstorming techniques supposedly perform better since they preclude evaluation apprehension; non-anonymous brainstorming techniques supposedly perform better since they reduce free riding. This project suggests brainstorming with selective anonymity as a new method (anonymous brainstorming in which the identity of the idea creators is revealed after evaluation, but only for the top rated ideas). It is expected that the proposed method yields more and better ideas than the two traditional methods, as it dampens the inhibitors at work in each of the other methods. The plan is to use a randomized control trial with 225 participants to check whether this new method is more powerful than the traditional ones in terms of generating idea quantity and idea quality in idea generation sessions.