What makes an idea risky? The relations between perceptions of idea novelty, usefulness, and risk
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ABSTRACT Individuals and organizations frequently tout creative ideas as a desirable goal, and yet, creative ideas are frequently rejected. Creativity researchers have often suggested that creative ideas are rejected because they are perceived as riskier due to their inherent novelty or originality. Although this assumption is prevalent, we are unaware of any empirical research directly examining the relations between perceptions of novelty and risk. We provide an empirical test of this assumption in two studies in which participants rate the novelty, usefulness, and riskiness of ideas. Across both studies, we find consistent support for the idea that usefulness, rather than novelty, has the strongest relation with risk perceptions. We also find some evidence that novelty and usefulness interact to predict perceptions of risk. Additionally, in Study 2, we find that usefulness has the strongest relation with willingness to invest and buy a product. The findings of this study suggest that the bias against creativity may be driven by the perceived usefulness of an idea, rather than its novelty, such that ideas with lower usefulness are perceived to be riskier.
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This study extends the application of creativity theory to the AI-collaboration context, differentiating itself from existing research that only explores the independent role of perceived novelty or perceived usefulness in isolation.
“This study further extends the application of creativity theory to the AI-collaboration context, distinctly differentiating itself from existing research that only explores the independent role of perceived novelty or perceived usefulness in isolation (Liu and Huang, 2025; Keith et al., 2024).”
From From humans to AI: understanding why AI is perceived as the preferred co-creation partner (2025) · cites this paper as Keith et al., 2024
Keith et al. do not study AI collaboration, and their Study 1 Results and Discussion examine novelty and usefulness together, including an interaction between them in predicting perceived risk. This contradicts the characterization of this cited work as exploring only either dimension in isolation. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 56 · Cited by 7
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Dean, D.L., Hender, J., Rodgers, T., & Santanen, E. (2006). Identifying good ideas: Constructs and scales for idea evaluation. Jour- nal of Association for Information Systems, 7(10), 646-699.
- What Makes an Idea Risky? 21626057, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jocb.621 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [16/11/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License · DOI
- Authors
- Keith, M. G., Freier, L. M., Childers, M., Ponce‐Pore, I., & Brooks, S.
- Affiliations
- Bowling Green State University (US)
- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (US)
- Bowling Green State University
- Corresponding author
- Keith, Melissa G.
- Venue
- The Journal of Creative Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-11-16
- Volume
- 58
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6-27
- ISSN
- 0022-0175 (ISSN-L)
- 2162-6057
- OpenAlex
- W4388733787
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 1.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Journal of Creative Behavior (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences
- Keywords
- idea novelty, perceived usefulness, risk perception, creative ideas, willingness to invest
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