Effects of feedback on individual creativity in social learning: an experimental study

Abstract

PurposeThe study aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical model to understand the relationship between feedback and individual creativity in a social learning context. To achieve the goal, the study unravels the mechanism underlying the relationship between evaluative feedback and creativity development and examines the interaction effects between informative feedback and evaluative feedback.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework to develop the research model. A laboratory experiment with a self-designed social learning platform was conducted to test the model. A total of 125 subjects participate in the experiment.FindingsThe empirical findings reveal that evaluative feedback affects creativity via intrinsic motivation and perceived feedback accuracy and informative feedback moderates the effects of negative feedback on intrinsic motivation and perceived feedback accuracy.Practical implicationsOrganizations should be conscious of the role feedback plays in individual creativity development when building a social learning platform. Specifically, organizations can guide learners to provide favorable online feedback as well as train learners to cope with feedback effectively in creative tasks.Originality/valueThe study integrates feedback and creativity literature to propose three important mediators and examines the roles of the mediators in the process of creativity development in a social learning context, extending current understanding on the direct relationship between feedback and creativity. The study also complements the existing feedback literature by investigating the interactions between different types of peer feedback in the model of creativity development.

A Black Mirror of Bright Ideas: Could Media Educate towards Positive Creativity?

“…As an example, the platform Mosaic, instead of prompting its users to share outcomes, was dedicated to encouraging exchange on in-progress-work [71]: Users could pose questions on specific problems they were facing and received feedback more valuable than likes or typical comments, namely feedback that helped them develop their creative skillset. In an online learning setting, positive evaluative feedback led to generally higher perceived creative self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, but even negative feedback that was deemed informative led to higher levels of intrinsic motivation [72]. Thus, for creative learning, users need to actively look for an environment that will fit their goal of cultivating skills, and online environments can be such places.…”