Osborne Revisited: Is There No Such Thing as a Bad Idea? The Effects of Electronic Junk on Computer-Mediated Idea Generation Performance

Conventional thought in idea generation suggests that there is no such thing as a bad idea. This paper challenges this assumption, arguing that task-irrelevant comments (electronic junk) can significantly influence the performance of computer-mediated idea generation groups. While the results of a controlled laboratory experiment using a group simulator show that electronic junk can create a downward spiral, leading to the creation of even more task-irrelevant comments, the results also support the hypothesis of an inverted-u-shaped relationship between the amount of junk comments and ideation performance, suggesting that moderate amounts of junk comments can aid performance, whereas large amounts of junk comments can be detrimental to performance. Further, the results show that members of groups producing no junk comments perceive their individual performances to be lower than members of groups with moderate or high amounts of junk comments. The implications of these results on the design of human-computer interfaces are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.