Back to History Current Version

When doing things the same way makes you more creative: Using habits of perspective to increase useful creativity and resist the detrimental effect of financial incentives

Last registered on May 30, 2018

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
When doing things the same way makes you more creative: Using habits of perspective to increase useful creativity and resist the detrimental effect of financial incentives
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002981
Initial registration date
May 25, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 30, 2018, 9:35 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Cambridge

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Cambridge
PI Affiliation
University of Cambridge

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-10-08
End date
2018-11-19
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study explores how individuals develop habitual perspectives from repetitive tasks they enact over time, and how these deeply ingrained habits of perspective influence creativity. Further, this study proposes that habits of perspective are resistant to the creativity-stunting effect of financial incentives.

In a randomized controlled trial, participants will develop specific habits of perspective and perform creativity tasks under different incentive schemes. The study will then be duplicated in the field at a social venture incubator, a business accelerator, a marketing organisation in London, and an international non-profit. We expect our results to show that companies who want to encourage innovation in their employees should focus on the perspective their employees’ daily tasks induce in them.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ebert, Charlie, Raghabendra KC and Jaideep Prabhu. 2018. "When doing things the same way makes you more creative: Using habits of perspective to increase useful creativity and resist the detrimental effect of financial incentives." AEA RCT Registry. May 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2981-1.0
Former Citation
Ebert, Charlie, Raghabendra KC and Jaideep Prabhu. 2018. "When doing things the same way makes you more creative: Using habits of perspective to increase useful creativity and resist the detrimental effect of financial incentives." AEA RCT Registry. May 30. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2981/history/30140
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-10-08
Intervention End Date
2018-11-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Creativity as measured through Guilford's Alternative Uses Task
Useful Creativity as measured by expert judges
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Results of the alternative uses test are based on four criteria:
Fluency – the number of alternative uses
Originality – how unusual the ideas are
Flexibility – the range of ideas
Elaboration – level of detail

Useful creativity is measured by getting an expert judge or group of judges in a field to evaluate participant ideas. Evaluation technique will be similar to Study 3 in Grant, Adam M. and James W. Berry (2011), using the two criteria of novelty and usefulness.

Grant, Adam M. and James W. Berry (2011), “The Necessity of Others is the Mother of Invention: Intrinsic and Prosocial Motivations, Perspective Taking, and Creativity,” Academy of Management Journal, 54 (1), 73–96.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study uses a 2X3 between-subjects factorial design. There are two interventions:
(1) The manipulation of perspective during habit formation
(2) The type of incentive given during creativity tasks
Experimental Design Details
Summary

This study uses a 2X3 between-subjects factorial design. There are two interventions:
(1) The manipulation of perspective when forming a habit.
(2) The type of incentive given during creativity tasks, after the habit of perspective has been formed.

Intervention one
For the first manipulation, participants will download an application on their smartphone and respond to daily notifications over a five-week period. In each notification, participants will be directed to describe how an object can be useful for others or themselves.
a. Perspective Treatment 1: Please write down a novel use you could have for this item (randomly chosen item from a list of 200 items)
b. Perspective Treatment 2: Please write down a novel use others could have for this item (randomly chosen item from a list of 200 items)

Habit forming with daily activities can take at least 18 days for simple activities and longer for more complex activities (Lally et al. 2010). Therefore, to ensure a habit is formed, participants will be asked to perform their respective task twice each day at random times throughout the day for a total of four weeks. The Self-Report Habit Index or Self-Report Behavioural Automaticity Index (Gardner et al. 2012) may be used, post intervention, to measure the extent to which a habit has been instilled.
Intervention two
The second intervention will occur after the first, when the habit of perspective has been formed. Participants will return to the lab and be asked to perform a pair of creativity tasks under different incentives.
a. Incentive Treatment 1: Financial incentive (extra £25 if the participant places within the top 25% amongst participants in the creativity tests)
b. Incentive Treatment 2: Prosocial incentive (donation of £25 to charity of participant’s choice if the participant places within the top 25% amongst participants in the creativity tests)
c. Incentive control: No incentive
Performance on the creativity tests will be recorded for all individuals within each incentive treatment group, for each perspective treatment group.

Following analysis of the lab results, field research will be run at multiple organisations, using a similar design.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
180 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
180 individual
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 individuals within each treatment and control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials