Creativity in Dyads: the role of closeness and media multiplexity

• Authors: Xiqing Sha;Yi Wu;Klarissa Chang
• Venue: Proceedings of the 50th annual conference on Computers and People Research
• Year: 2012

Identifying the features of social ties that facilitate the generation of creative ideas deepens the understanding of relational factors in dyadic communication that trigger creative thinking. Tie strength, which is the key factor that shape creativity, has ambiguous effects on shaping creativity. Specifically, strong ties have both positive and negative effects on creativity when it is examined from a structural perspective and social perspective. It is also unclear that through what kind of mechanisms behind that trigger strong ties have an opposite association with creativity. Therefore this study distinguishes different tie types of tie strength and investigates how they have opposite effects on creativity. Furthermore, this study also examines whether the usage of multiple media in dyadic communication would influence the interaction. Our finding shows that dyads that are strongly connected by multiple ties (i.e., professional ties, personal ties) are less likely to share diverse expertise but more likely to obtain thoughtful responses from each other. Compared to dyads using a single communication media, dyads that use multiple communication media are less likely to share diverse expertise due to communication cost and redundant information exchanged. However the dyads are more likely to respond to each other with thoughtful answers when they use multiple communication media. These findings provide both theoretical contribution to extant literature and practical implications.