Creativity and fixation in the real world: A literature review of case study research
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GenAI can homogenize the ideas generated by different users and limit human agency and lead to creative fixation.
“Literature shows that GenAI can homogenize the ideas generated by different users [8] and limit human agency and lead to creative fixation [5, 21, 101].”
From Decoupling of Usefulness and Novelty: Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI on Design Outputs and Novice Designers' Creative Thinking (2026) · cites this paper as [21]
Creative design processes are subject to measurable fixation effects, through which final proposed solutions are inappropriately constrained by features of earlier solution candidates.
“Creative design processes are subject to measurable fixation effects [21, 42, 71], through which the final proposed solutions to a design problem are inappropriately constrained by features of earlier solution candidates [2]”
From Homogenization Effects of Large Language Models on Human Creative Ideation (2024) · cites this paper as [21]
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Homogenization Effects of Large Language Models on Human Creative Ideation
Anderson, B. R., Shah, J. H., & Kreminski, M. (2024) · Creativity and Cognition · doi:10.1145/3635636.3656204 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
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Fu, Y., Zhou, T., Han, B., Wang, M., Chen, Y., Gomes Da Costa Lai, Z., Pang, R. Y., Reinecke, K., Wobbrock, J. O., & Hiniker, A. (2026) · Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3772318.3791329 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Literature shows that GenAI can homogenize the ideas generated by different users [8] and limit human agency and lead to creative fixation [5, 21, 101].”
- Authors
- Crilly, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Crilly, Nathan
- ORCID
- Crilly, Nathan
- Venue
- Design Studies
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-09
- Volume
- 64
- Pages
- 154-168
- ISSN
- 0142-694X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2963013850
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 3.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Design Studies (publishedVersion)
- Cambridge University Engineering Department Publications Database (submittedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Apollo
- Funders
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Design Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Artistic and Creative Research
- Keywords
- design creativity, design fixation, creative design, inspiration, creative process, design research methodology
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