As the world braces itself for a pandemic-induced surge in automation and a consequent (accelerated) shift in the nature of jobs, it is essential now more than ever to understand how people's creative performances are impacted by their interactions with peers in a social network. However, when it comes to creative ideation, it is unclear how the demographic cues of one' s peers can influence the network dynamics and the associated performance outcomes of people. In this paper, we ask: (1) Given the task of creative idea generation, how do social network connectivities adapt to people's demographic cues? (2) How are creative outcomes influenced by such demography-informed network dynamics? We find that link formations in creativity-centric networks are primarily guided by the creative performances of one's peers . However, in the presence of demographic information, the odds of same-gender links to persist increase by 82.03\%, after controlling for merit-based link persistence. In essence, homophily-guided link persistence takes place when demographic cues are available. We further find that the semantic similarities between socially stimulated idea-sets increase significantly in the presence of demographic cues (P<1e-4), which is counter-productive for the purposes of divergent creativity. This result can partly be explained by the observation that people's ideas tend to be more homogeneous within demographic groups than between demographic groups (P<1e-7). Therefore, choosing to maintain connections based on demographic similarity can negatively impact one's creative inspiration sources by taking away potential diversity bonuses. Our results can inform intelligent intervention possibilities towards maximizing a social system's creative outcomes .
The characteristics of social partners have long been hypothesized as influential in guiding group interactions. Understanding how demographic cues impact networks of creative collaborators is critical for elevating creative performances therein. We conducted a randomized experiment to investigate how the knowledge of peers' gender and racial identities distorts people's connection patterns and the resulting creative outcomes in a dynamic social network. Consistent with prior work, we found that creative inspiration links are primarily formed with top idea-generators . However, when gender and racial identities are known, not only is there (1) an increase of 82.03\% in the odds of same-gender connections (but not for same-race connections), but (2) the semantic similarity of idea-sets stimulated by these connections also increase significantly compared to demography-agnostic networks, negatively impacting the outcomes of divergent creativity. We found that ideas tend to be more homogeneous within demographic groups than between , taking away diversity-bonuses from similarity-based links and partly explaining the results. These insights can inform intelligent interventions to enhance network-wide creative performances .
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As the world braces itself for a pandemic-induced surge in automation and a consequent (accelerated) shift in the nature of jobs, it is essential now more than ever to understand how people's creative performances are impacted by their interactions with peers in a social network. However, when it comes to creative ideation, it is unclear how the demographic cues of one' s peers can influence the network dynamics and the associated performance outcomes of people. In this paper, we ask: (1) Given the task of creative idea generation, how do social network connectivities adapt to people's demographic cues? (2) How are creative outcomes influenced by such demography-informed network dynamics? We find that link formations in creativity-centric networks are primarily guided by the creative performances of one's peers
The characteristics of social partners have long been hypothesized as influential in guiding group interactions. Understanding how demographic cues impact networks of creative collaborators is critical for elevating creative performances therein. We conducted a randomized experiment to investigate how the knowledge of peers' gender and racial identities distorts people's connection patterns and the resulting creative outcomes in a dynamic social network. Consistent with prior work, we found that creative inspiration links are primarily formed with top idea-generators
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in the presence of demographic information, the
when gender and racial identities are known, not only is there (1) an increase of 82.03\% in the
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links to persist increase by 82.03\%, after controlling for merit-based link persistence. In essence, homophily-guided link persistence takes place when demographic cues are available. We further find that the semantic similarities between socially stimulated
connections (but not for same-race connections), but (2) the semantic similarity of
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increase significantly in the presence of demographic cues (P<1e-4), which is counter-productive for the purposes
stimulated by these connections also increase significantly compared to demography-agnostic networks, negatively impacting the outcomes
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This result can partly be explained by the observation that people's
We found that
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demographic groups (P<1e-7). Therefore, choosing to maintain connections based on demographic similarity can negatively impact one's creative inspiration sources by taking away potential diversity bonuses. Our results
, taking away diversity-bonuses from similarity-based links and partly explaining the results. These insights
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intervention possibilities towards maximizing a social system's creative outcomes
interventions to enhance network-wide creative performances