• Posted July 2, 2025

Brainstorming? Avoid The Internet, Study Says

Want to think outside the box?

Avoid the internet, a new study says.

Googling for new ideas can inhibit a group’s creativity during brainstorming sessions, researchers reported June 30 in the journal Memory & Cognition.

Internet searches appeared to stymie the production of clever ideas in groups asked to brainstorm new uses for two common objects, umbrellas and shields, researchers said.

“The internet isn’t making us dumb, but we may be using it in ways that aren’t helpful,” lead researcher Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said in a news release.

The internet might be hindering creativity due to “fixation effects,” researchers said.

People provided search engine results tend to think of other ideas similar to those coughed up by the internet, researchers said.

At the same time, suggestions offered by search results apparently obstruct folks from thinking of new or different answers.

“For example, a person trying to brainstorm ‘things you might spread’ who sees other people, or Google, give answers like ‘butter’ or ‘jam’ is more likely to come up with other foods, such as cream cheese, and less likely to come up with non-food-based answers, like disease or rumors,” Oppenheimer said.

For this lab experiment involving nearly 250 people, researchers relied upon the fact that online searches turn up tons of alternative uses for umbrellas but few for shields.

Groups provided internet access struggled to generate new ideas for umbrellas, possibly because the bounty of search engine suggestions limited their thinking, researchers said.

On the other hand, the absence of pre-existing ideas for shields appears to have left more room for creativity to bloom, researchers found.

“This study is the first evidence of fixation effects being induced by internet search,” Oppenheimer said.

Results also showed that people denied internet access tended to let their imaginations run wild.

“Google users came up with the same common answers, often in the same order, as they relied on Google, while non-Google users came up with more distinct answers,” Oppenheimer said.

However, Oppenheimer doesn’t think the internet should be avoided when brainstorming.

Instead, people need to come up with better ways to use search engines while trying to flex their creative muscles, researchers said.

“Our hope is that by studying how human thought interacts with technology use, we can figure out ways to glean the best of the internet while minimizing the negative consequences,” researcher Mark Patterson, an assistant teaching professor of behavioral decision research at Carnegie Mellon, said in a news release.

For example, doing a bit of offline brainstorming before turning to the internet might help avoid the fixation effects researchers saw in these experiments.

“The goal isn’t to forsake the powers of online search — it’s to learn how to use them better,” Oppenheimer said.

More information

MIT has more on brainstorming.

SOURCE: Carnegie Mellon University, news release, June 30, 2025