Abstract
Additive counterfactual mind-sets broaden processing and aid creative generation; subtractive counterfactual mind-sets promote relational analysis and aid analytical problem solving (Markman, Lindberg, & Kray, 2007).
Markman, K. D., Lindberg, M. J., & Kray, L. J. (2007). Implications of counterfactual structure for creative generation and analytical problem solving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(3), 312–324. DOI
Key findings
- Additive counterfactuals: — Reconstruct reality by adding new antecedents — expansive processing style.
- Subtractive counterfactuals: — Reconstruct by removing antecedents — relational processing style.
Application
When brainstorming benefits from “what if we had also…” additive counterfactuals; debugging a logic puzzle benefits from “what if we removed…” subtractive counterfactuals — Markman et al — open this cite for the study behind the move.