Virtual Meetings Could Actually Hinder Creativity, Per Study Across Countries

Illustration 209586280 © Syuzannam | Dreamstime.com

Do you experience mental fog during brainstorming sessions on Zoom? You’re perhaps not alone.

A study conducted by Dr Melanie Brucks of Columbia University in New York and Jonathan Levav of Stanford University validates suspicions that it’s easier to get creative in person with coworkers than on video conferencing apps. Their findings are published in the Nature journal.

In one lab experiment, 602 participants were paired up to brainstorm creative ideas. Half were assigned to complete the challenge in a room, while the other half communicated over Zoom. The volunteers were all tasked to come up with creative ways to use a Frisbee or bubble wrap in five minutes.

Independent judges concluded that the ideas proposed on Zoom were 20% less creative than those developed face to face. Inventive ideas included flinging the Frisbee at a tree to collect fruit and using the bubble wrap to communicate in Morse code, while more ordinary suggestions included doubling the Frisbee as a plate and wrapping a baby with the packaging as protection.

The researchers then conducted a similar test with 1,490 engineers of a telecommunications company with offices in Finland, Hungary, India, Israel, and Portugal, and the results were in line with the other experiment.

“[Participants] are not only generating a larger number of creative ideas, but their best idea is better,” Brucks concluded.

The findings complement studies suggesting that employees—even introverts—thrive in hybrid work environments, as opposed to fully-remote setups, pointing at an ingrained need for social contact.

[via The Guardian and NewScientist, cover illustration 209586280 © Syuzannam | Dreamstime.com]