The impact of the quality and diversity of the ideas of others referred to on the quality of creative works: Analysis of large-scale data from online communities

Abstract

In order to realize an idea support system, it is important to identify the characteristics of information that individuals should be exposed to in order to achieve a high level of creativity. We collected and statistically analyzed datasets related to three large online communities (Cities: Skylines, SCP-wiki, and Archive of Our Own) engaged in mod development and novel writing to examine whether the quality and diversity of other people’s ideas referred to have a positive effect on idea generation. Our analysis revealed the following three findings: (1) the quality diversity of reference ideas has the most positive impact on the quality of generated ideas when it is neither high nor low, (2) the content diversity of reference ideas has a negative impact on the quality of generated ideas, and (3) the quality of reference ideas has a negative impact on the quality of generated ideas when it is extremely high.