Is it new? Personal and contextual influences on perceptions of novelty and creativity.

TLDR

Novelty recognition is the crucial starting point for extracting value from ideas generated by others. The study develops an associative evaluation account to explain how personal and contextual factors motivate individuals to perceive novelty and creativity. Four studies—two laboratory experiments and two field studies—systematically tested hypotheses derived from this perspective. Across these studies, regulatory focus states and chronic promotion or prevention focus influenced novelty perception, organizational culture modulated novelty and creativity judgments, and prevention focus combined with loss framing weakened the positive relation between normative novelty and ratings. PsycINFO database record.

Abstract

Novelty recognition is the crucial starting point for extracting value from the ideas generated by others. In this paper we develop an associative evaluation account for how personal and contextual factors motivate individuals to perceive novelty and creativity. We report 4 studies that systematically tested hypotheses developed from this perspective. Study 1 (a laboratory experiment) showed that perceivers' regulatory focus, as an experimentally induced state, affected novelty perception. Study 2 (a field study) found that perceivers' promotion focus and prevention focus, measured as chronic traits, each interacted with normative level of novelty and creativity: perceivers who scored higher on promotion focus perceived more novelty (or creativity) in novel (or creative) targets than those who scored lower, whereas perceivers who scored higher on prevention focus perceived less novelty (or creativity) in novel (or creative) targets than those who scored lower. Study 3 (a field study) showed that organizational culture affected the perception of novelty and creativity. Study 4 (a laboratory experiment) found perceiver-by-idea-by-context 3-way interaction effects: for perceivers with prevention focus, the positive relation between normative level of novelty and novelty ratings was weakened in the loss-framing condition versus the gain-framing condition. We discuss implications of the findings for future research and management practice. (PsycINFO Database Record