Enhancing Group Creativity with Bots, by Professor Matt Jones, Yale University

Enhancing Group Creativity with Bots (and other Experiments in Quantitative Social Science) by Professor Matt Jones, Yale University, Wednesday November 15, 1:00 – 1:50pm, North Science Building 017, Wachenheim

Abstract: When it comes to creativity, social information can promote exploration of the idea space or cause groups to become trapped in self-perpetuating groupthink. In this talk, I present an experiment to test simple bot interventions aimed at enhancing group creativity by promoting specific kinds of ideas. We find that groups outperform individuals, and that groups benefit from the introduction of bots that spread mainstream ideas throughout the group, particularly in scenarios where the idea exploration problem is easy. Additionally, we present evidence that individuals and groups require different kinds of creativity. I will also briefly discuss some of my other research interests, including coordination, voting, leadership and consensus, and homophily and cooperation.