Thinking out of the box may not ensure creative solutions

Thinking out of the box or using unrelated concepts to come up with a solutions to problems is not always the best idea, a study says.

"For people needing fresh inspiration for a problem, these findings imply that you should not just go off and talk to random people or read things totally unrelated to your problem," said lead author Joel Chan from the University of Pittsburgh.

"These might yield novel ideas, but not necessarily ... useful and novel ideas," Chan added.

For the study, the researchers collected data through OpenIDEO, a web-based crowdsourced innovation platform intended to help people address a wide range of social and environmental problems like human rights violations and job growth for youth.

"Instead of seeing a bigger effect of far inspirations, I saw that ideas built on source ideas more closely related to the problem tended to be selected more often," Chan said.

"And I saw the same pattern across 12 very different problems - ranging from preventing human rights violations to fostering greater connectedness in urban communities to improving employment prospects for young people," he added.

"My overall theory is that creative ideas more often come from accumulating many small insights, stretching the boundaries just a bit at a time," Chan concluded.

The study appeared in the journal Design Studies.