The Effects of Secondary Task Type in Multitasking on Consumer Creativity
Mentor 1
Sydney Chinchanachokchai
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
24-4-2015 10:30 AM
End Date
24-4-2015 11:45 AM
Description
In recent years, consumers have had a tendency to perform more than one task at a time (multitasking) due to the availability of mobile devices. Consumers sometimes encounter situations in which they need to use their creativity to alter a product to enhance its performance or appearance, or even to create a new product (Burroughs et al., 2008). The purpose of this research is to examine how multitasking behavior affects consumer creativity. The types of tasks in which consumers engage in everyday can be classified into two types – perceptual or cognitive. In this study, we examined three conditions (single task / multitasking with perceptual task / multitasking with cognitive task). The single-task control condition had participants perform an idea generation task, in which participants had to generate uses for a newspaper. The other two conditions had participants complete the idea generation task while simultaneously performing a secondary task (either cognitive or perceptual). Participants then answered a series of questions assessing task enjoyment. We analyzed the number of ideas generated, the average creativity score of the idea generation task, and the self-assessed task enjoyment using ANOVA. The number of ideas generated for the single-task condition (M = 7.89), the perceptual-task condition (M = 9.62), and the cognitive-task condition (M = 9) were not statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 1.65, p < n.s. However, the creativity scores for the single-task condition (M = 2.35) was significantly higher than the perceptual-task (M = 1.88) and the cognitive-task condition (M = 1.99) and the results were statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 5.20, p < .01. The levels of task enjoyment for the single-task condition (M = 4.11) was also significantly higher than the perceptual-task condition (M = 3.48) and the cognitive-task condition (M = 3.08) and the results were statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 3.63, p < .05. The findings indicate that people who were multitasking were less creative than those that were doing only one task. Moreover, those in the single-task condition seemed to enjoy the task more. From these findings, it can be inferred that multitasking can inhibit creativity. These findings have extended the research on multitasking and have many implications for further research regarding the underlying reasons as to why these specific effects are seen and crucial marketing strategy research.
The Effects of Secondary Task Type in Multitasking on Consumer Creativity
Union Wisconsin Room
In recent years, consumers have had a tendency to perform more than one task at a time (multitasking) due to the availability of mobile devices. Consumers sometimes encounter situations in which they need to use their creativity to alter a product to enhance its performance or appearance, or even to create a new product (Burroughs et al., 2008). The purpose of this research is to examine how multitasking behavior affects consumer creativity. The types of tasks in which consumers engage in everyday can be classified into two types – perceptual or cognitive. In this study, we examined three conditions (single task / multitasking with perceptual task / multitasking with cognitive task). The single-task control condition had participants perform an idea generation task, in which participants had to generate uses for a newspaper. The other two conditions had participants complete the idea generation task while simultaneously performing a secondary task (either cognitive or perceptual). Participants then answered a series of questions assessing task enjoyment. We analyzed the number of ideas generated, the average creativity score of the idea generation task, and the self-assessed task enjoyment using ANOVA. The number of ideas generated for the single-task condition (M = 7.89), the perceptual-task condition (M = 9.62), and the cognitive-task condition (M = 9) were not statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 1.65, p < n.s. However, the creativity scores for the single-task condition (M = 2.35) was significantly higher than the perceptual-task (M = 1.88) and the cognitive-task condition (M = 1.99) and the results were statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 5.20, p < .01. The levels of task enjoyment for the single-task condition (M = 4.11) was also significantly higher than the perceptual-task condition (M = 3.48) and the cognitive-task condition (M = 3.08) and the results were statistically significant across the three conditions, F (2,78) = 3.63, p < .05. The findings indicate that people who were multitasking were less creative than those that were doing only one task. Moreover, those in the single-task condition seemed to enjoy the task more. From these findings, it can be inferred that multitasking can inhibit creativity. These findings have extended the research on multitasking and have many implications for further research regarding the underlying reasons as to why these specific effects are seen and crucial marketing strategy research.
