A recent piece of research reveals that most people are better at solving problems if they imagine the subject to be someone else rather than themselves.
Daniel Pink’s article in the Daily Telegraph, “Employees are faster and more creative when solving other people’s problems”, has compiled three pieces of research, in which the people involved were 1) asked to solve a problem involving a prisoner escaping from a cell; 2) draw a picture of an alien for a story and 3) come up with a gift.
The research showed that the closer the subjects perceived themselves to the problem, the least creative they were in their answers. For example, half of the group trying to solve the prisoner problem were asked to imagine that they were the prisoner and the other half were asked to imagine that the prisoner was someone else. While less than half of the “prisoners” managed to escape, more than two thirds of those imagining they were helping someone else, solved the problem.
The same thing happened in the other two experiments: those drawing an alien for someone else’s story were more creative than those drawing one for themselves. Similarly, those choosing presents for others were more imaginative when looking for gifts for people distant to them.
I wonder whether there is a simple technique here when we go over and over a problem, without reaching any kind of satisfactory solution. I do recognise in myself the ability to help others more than I help myself. So is the solution to pretend we are helping someone else? Using
If this weren’t my problem, but X’s problem, what would I say to them?
Distance helps our creativity in this way. I would love to know why – is it because we like to feel we are useful to others? Is it because we censor ourselves less when helping others? Can we be more creative because we don’t have to act on our own advice?
Thanks Mr Pink for raising this!
