Insightful problem solving can be manipulated by social reality

Although the insight used to solve a problem seems to emerge unexpectedly, a previous empirical study has shown that insight emerges after people recognize their failure via social comparisons regarding problem-solving outcomes. This study was intended to confirm this conclusion and advance knowledge in this domain. Experiment 1 demonstrated that insight was more strongly influenced by information about the performances of more, rather than fewer, others, which is consistent with the notion of a social impact. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that this influence cannot be explained by socially-modulated manual speed (Experiment 2). These results suggest that insight can be robustly and universally manipulated by social reality.