Biases in Idea Screening: Exploring Gender Bias and First-Cast Vote Bias in the Process of Multivoting

Abstract

Idea generation and selecting ideas are two integral components in the design process. Before products or innovations can come to life, they must first be designed through the process of idea generation and selection. This investigation includes two studies that aim to determine if there is bias in the process of idea screening using multivoting. Both studies examine the process called multivoting which is used in team idea generation for selecting ideas. The sample of focus are students in an undergraduate creative design methods class. In these studies, the goal is to first determine if males are more likely than females to vote on their own ideas, and second to determine if the first ideas to receive any votes has an impact on the amount of total votes it receives from others on the team. In the first study, students brainstormed as many ideas as possible in ten minutes during class and then participated in multivoting. Results show that there is not enough of a difference between males and females to call it a bias, however there is an indication that there might be a bias toward ideas that receive votes first. In the second study, students came to class with ten ideas prepared. This process of multivoting was examined to see if there was a clear bias toward the ideas that first receive votes, as well as if a gender bias existed. Results from this study were similar to the first. There is not enough of a difference between males and females to call it a bias, however ideas that were the first to receive a vote got almost twice as many votes as ideas that were not first to receive a vote. Knowing when biases are likely to occur can help better the accuracy of idea screening, which can lead to more successful idea selections.