...studies have shown that the presence of criticism actually increases the flow of ideas. One experiment compared two groups: One which brainstormed with a mandate not to criticize, and another which had the license to debate each [other’s] ideas. The second group had 20% more ideas—and even after the session ended, the people in the second group had far more additional ideas than those in the first.
Why is that? [New Yorker writer Jonah] Lehrer doesn’t really say, and....