Problem Solving: Why We Only Consider Adding Instead of Subtracting

Gabrielle Adams

August 3, 2021 at 7:30 P.M. at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-lrc

Abstract

Do people systematically overlook opportunities to improve objects, ideas, and situations by subtracting from them? Eliminating features may enhance usability. Deleting words may clarify communications. Removing barriers may encourage desired behaviors. Yet, my research team and I have found that subtractive improvements are not as common as additive improvements in the changes that people pursue, and subtractive improvements are often overlooked entirely in the ideas that people generate. In our experiments, participants failed to identify advantageous subtractive improvements. This was true unless participants were explicitly prompted to consider subtration, given multiple opportunities (versus only one) to recognize the shortcomings of additive solutions, or when not cognitively burdened (verse under high cognitive load). Pursuing additive improvements without considering comparable, sometimes superior, subtractive ones may contribute to overburdened schedules, minds, and ecosystems.

Speaker

Gabrielle Adams is an Assistant Professor at the Frank Battan School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. A social psychologist by training, she conducts research on interpersonal dynamics, ethics, and conflict resolution. Her reseach has been published in Nature as was as top-tier social psychology and organizational behavior journals, and has received coverage from outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. She has received UVa’s highest teaching award and was also named one of the top 40 under 40 business business school professors. A native Californian, she received her BA fron Colby College and her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and was a Fellow-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.

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