When Feedback Backfires: Effects of Real-Time Participation Feedback and Group Norm Prompt on Team Creativity in...

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Organizational Psychology
• Virtual Collaboration Technologies

Background:

• Team creativity is crucial for innovation.
• Metaverse platforms offer new avenues for collaboration.
• Understanding intervention effects in virtual environments is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of structured interventions on team creativity in a metaverse.
• To examine the effects of real-time participation feedback and group norm prompts on creative output.

Main Methods:

• A 2x2 between-subject factorial design was employed with 81 university students.
• Participants collaborated on a brainstorming task using a custom metaverse platform (B.sket).
• Interventions included informational cues (participation feedback) and social-normative cues (group norm prompt).

Main Results:

• Real-time participation feedback significantly decreased idea fluency and marginally reduced flexibility and originality.
• The group norm prompt did not yield significant improvements in team creativity.
• Unexpected negative effects of informational cues on creative performance were observed.

Conclusions:

• Real-time participation feedback may undermine autonomy and induce cognitive distraction, negatively impacting creativity.
• Current team process interventions for equal participation require careful design to avoid unintended consequences.
• Further research is needed to optimize interventions for virtual collaboration environments.