The Overlooking of Subtractive Changes

Replication and Extension to Stronger Cues and Social Norms

Bibliographic Data

ID7170758
AuthorsAdrien A Fillon (0000-0001-8324-2715, LAPSCO, CNRS UMR 6024 Université Clermont‐Ferrand Clermont‐Ferrand France, corresponding author), Fabien Girandola (0000-0002-1253-1728, Laboratory of Social Psychology (LPS) & Institute on Creativity and Innovations of Aix‐Marseille (InCIAM) Aix‐Marseille University Aix‐en‐Provence France), Nathalie Bonnardel (0000-0002-5876-990X, Research Center for the Psychology of Cognition, Language and Emotion (PsyCLE) & Institute on Creativity and Innovations of Aix‐Marseille (InCIAM) Aix‐Marseille University Aix‐en‐Provence France), Lionel Souchet (0000-0002-5620-2790, Laboratory of Social Psychology (LPS) & Institute on Creativity and Innovations of Aix‐Marseille (InCIAM) Aix‐Marseille University Aix‐en‐Provence France)
Year2025
Volume59
Issue1
Publication date2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Creative Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0175 • E-ISSN: 2162-6057
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/jocb.1535
OpenAlexW4408468267
LanguageEN
References cited42

People systematically overlook subtractive changes and favor additive ones when reporting new ideas. In a first preregistered experiment conducted via the Prolific platform among French adults ( N = 477), we replicated experiments 2, 3, and 4 in Adams et al.'s study. We replicated the overlooking of subtraction, as participants reported 1155 additive ideas and only 297 subtractive ideas. Cueing participants (“Remember that you can add things or take them away”) increased the percentage of participants who reported at least one subtractive idea (overall OR = 2.52, improvement condition, φ = 0.18, make it worse condition, φ = 0.24). In a second experiment conducted to test how the framing of the cue influences the overlook, participants reported more subtractive ideas when they read a subtract‐only cue (“remember that you can take things away”), than with a subtract‐then‐add cue. Results therefore provided empirical support for the overlooking of subtractive changes hypothesis, mitigated by a cue. We also found that norms affected the report of new ideas (descriptive OR = 7.49, injunctive OR = 6.86). Cues and injunctive (but not descriptive) norms were both related to the asymmetry

Art · Perception · Replication (statistics) · Social norms approach · Statistics · Subtractive color · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Mathematics · Mental Health Research Topics · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology

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