"How is it that people say they want creativity but in reality often reject it?" said Jack Goncalo, ILR School assistant professor of organizational behavior and co-author of research to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. The paper reports on two 2010 experiments at the University of Pennsylvania involving more than 200 people.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-...ive-ideas.html

The article goes on to say that people may not even be aware of their bias against creative ideas, and that objective evidence promoting the creative idea is often unlikely to change people's minds towards it. It cites that creative ideas often bring about change, and with that change comes uncertainty which people naturally fear.


What are your thoughts on this? Personally, I've noticed this a lot, especially in jobs, places I volunteer and some other places. I've been discouraged from sharing ideas at times because of the deluge of negative feedback I received from some of my ideas, which were not only possible but would have either helped the place run more smoothly, brought an influx of talent to aid the cause, or made use of the untapped resources we already had available to us.

A lot of my ideas did require a group of people (mainly 4-5) to work together for their success, but because of people's fears that it wouldn't work, it ultimately didn't. Not because the idea was a bad one, but because others feared to get involved with it, mainly fearing its failure.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever had a legitimately good idea that either never got off the ground or failed because people shied away from it? Have you ever shied away from a creative idea yourself just because it was so much more different than anything you had ever thought of? There's no shame in the latter if its true, it seems to be human nature. But how does knowing about that unconscious tendency to avoid the creatively different affect how you will see ideas in the future?

Discuss ;D