Despite the often repeated statement in favour of novel products and solutions, new research suggests that when evaluators actually encounter novel ideas—the ideas driving innovation—these ideas may tend to generate disagreement.

Observing less consensus (i.e., more variability) in others’ judgments of the value of a (novel) idea can subsequently diminish people’s interest in supporting creative ideas, as disagreement is seen as a sign of risk.

Five studies test the authors predictions¹.

Understanding the factors that hinder support for creative ideas is important because creative ideas fuel innovation—a goal prioritized across the arts, sciences and business. Here we document one obstacle faced by creative ideas: as ideas become more novel—that is, they depart more from existing norms and standards—disagreement grows about their potential value. Specifically, across multiple contexts, using both experimental methods (four studies, total n = 1,801) and analyses of archival data, we find that there is more variability in judgements of the value of more novel (versus less novel) ideas. We also find that people interpret greater variability in others’ judgements about an idea’s value as a signal of risk, reducing their willingness to invest in the idea. Our findings show that consensus about an idea’s worth diminishes the newer it is, highlighting one reason creative ideas may fail to gain traction in the social world.

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(1) Johnson, Wayne, and Devon Proudfoot. ‘Greater Variability in Judgements of the Value of Novel Ideas’. Nature Human Behaviour 8, no. 3 (March 2024): 471–79. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01794-4.