Bisociation
Patrick G. Maggitti and Ken G. Smith
Bisociation, a term coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Act of Creation (1964), refers to the creative process through which two seemingly unrelated matrices of thought are combined to form a novel outcome (see creativity). Bisociation differs from logical associations of concepts that are in some way related or consistent with each other. For example, it is quite logical and consistent to associate the concepts of fire and light. That is, fire emits light. However, it took Edison to bisociate the concept of light with a previously unrelated concept, electricity. Outcomes of bisociation, such as the light bulb, are more radically creative than those resulting from routine, logical, and single dimension thought. Importantly, Koestler notes, and the light bulb example demonstrates, that the creative act does not result from fashioning some creative product from nothing. Rather, ‘‘it uncovers, selects, re shuffles, combines, syn the sizes already existing facts, ideas, faculties, (and) skills’’ (Koestler, 1964: 120). In fact, it is often the case that the most original creative discover ies are also those that, in retrospect, seem most obvious.
Koestler largely explores bisociation in the context of humor and satire. For example, he relates a joke in which a convict, caught cheating while playing cards with his fellow inmates, is kicked out of jail for cheating. The irony of the situation is based on the intersection of two ideas that, independently, are quite unremarkable (i.e., convicts are in jail and cheaters are kicked out). The bisociation of these two notions creates a novel and creatively humorous situation. Other researchers have explored the concept of bisociation in humor by suggesting its necessity for the humorous result of puns (Attardo, 1988) and conundrums (Dienhart, 1999). Punch lines in general are linguistic triggers that bisociate the semantics of two seemingly disparate ideas (Dienhart, 1999) or realms of meaning (Johnson, 1976).
Bisociation also occurs in other types of creative endeavors beyond humor, such as science, music, and art (Amabile, 1996). Koestler bisociation 11 illustrates this point by maintaining that scientists bring together unrelated ideas while exploring problems in their field. Likewise, he also brings to light bisociation in the invention of new products. For example, he explains how Gutenberg invented type casting by bringing together his knowledge of wine presses and coin stamping. Researchers have also used bisociation to describe creativity in other populations, such as children (Auerbach, 1972) and in specific individuals like Albert Einstein (Dreis tadt, 1974).
Psychologists have examined bisociation as a tool in a variety of contexts. For example, humorous bisociations between love and career are used by career counselors to help clients clarify and confront their career choices in a creative manner (Nevo, 1986). Humorous bisociations were also shown to desensitize dentistry patients and create a playful humorous environment (Nevo and Shapira, 1988). Psychoanalysts have used bisociation to develop the concept of hemispheric bisociation, the synthesis of two different cerebral planes, as an effective psycho analytic technique to encourage creativity through the use of both symbols and verbalizations (Hoppe, 1988). Finally, with a sample of research and development scientists, Jabri (1988) developed and validated a scale, based on Koestler’s concept of bisociation, to measure creative problem solving approaches.
Management researchers are beginning to offer bisociation as an explanation to account for the creativity of market actors in a variety of contexts, such as entrepreneurial innovation (Sexton and Smilor, 1997). For example, Smith and Di Gregorio (2002) argue that entrepreneurs combine, or bisociate, preexisting but unrelated matrices of information concerning markets, customers, and resources. These researchers propose that individuals differ in their ability to bisociate more advanced and complex informa tion based on their level of intrinsic motivation, an appropriate stimulus, domain knowledge, and creative skills. Further, they argue that the greater the diversity of information that is inte grated in the bisociation process, the more novel and market disrupting their subsequent entre preneurial actions. This perspective links the idea of bisociation with the concept of ‘‘creative destruction’’ (Schumpeter, 1942). Creative destruction occurs when the market equilibrium is disrupted by the introduction of a new product, new service, new process, new market, new source of raw material, or new way of organizing – what Schumpeter called innovation. Schum peter argued that these innovations are the creative result of new combinations of existing factors of production. It is possible, therefore, that the concept of bisociation can explain the level of creativeness and destructiveness of in novations based on the diversity of inputs or resources that are bisociated in the process of innovation.
Bibliography
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