A study on the influence of personality and anonymity on electronic brainstorming

Abstract

This study examines the influence of personality and anonymity on idea generation in electronic brainstorming systems. A hypothesis was set up that anonymity encourages introverts to generate ideas in electronic brainstorming, and this hypothesis was examined by a laboratory experiment and questionnaire. The subjects of this experiment were 20 university students and graduate students who had studied and used groupware systems. 2/spl times/2 factorial design was used, crossing anonymity (anonymous/identified) with personality (introvert/extravert). As for the results of the laboratory experiment, introverts with anonymity generated a lot of ideas. As for the results of the questionnaire, it was clarified that the anonymous condition in electronic brainstorming is suited to introverts' idea generation. So, in this study the hypothesis was basically supported. Generally speaking, Japanese are, like introverts, sensitive to conformance pressure. So, the anonymous condition may be most suited to Japanese people. In the future, the relationship between anonymity and cultural background should be studied.