Linguistic Analysis is Useful in Predicting Group Brainstorming Performance

Abstract

Interactive brainstorming groups generate fewer ideas than the combined output of the same number of members working individually (cf., Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991). However, even armed with this information, businesses and organizations often use groups to generate ideas. Being able to identify groups that brainstorm well would be beneficial to businesses and organizations. The transcripts of brainstorming groups from six separate studies were examined and results indicated that linguistic analysis, specifically, the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), is useful in identifying high performing brainstorming groups. The more group members avoided the use of first person pronouns, negate words, inclusive and exclusive words, and discussions of cognitive and social mechanisms, the more ideas the groups tended to generate. The fact that the pattern appeared across studies that included brainstorming groups of differing size, working on different problems at different locations speaks to the generalizability of the finding.