Divergent thinking: generating many possibilities

Short answer: Divergent thinking means generating many possible answers to an open question, while convergent thinking means narrowing down to the best one. The distinction comes from psychologist J. P. Guilford and is still central to how creativity is studied. Keeping the two modes separate, first widening, then choosing, can make creative and stuck tasks easier to start.

This lesson follows Creativity fundamentals. After it, continue to Deciding when to delay.

What is divergent thinking?

In his work on the structure of intelligence, J. P. Guilford distinguished between two kinds of thinking (Guilford, 1967):

• Divergent thinking: producing many different possible answers to a question that has no single right answer. "How many ways could we celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday?"
• Convergent thinking: narrowing possibilities to the one best or correct answer. "Which of these ideas fits our budget, her health and the date?"

Guilford's distinction remains one of the most widely used frameworks in creativity research. A classic way to measure divergent thinking is an "unusual uses" task, where people list as many uses as they can for an everyday object such as a brick or a paperclip. Answers are often scored on how many there are, how varied they are and how original they are.

How is it different from convergent thinking, and why does that matter?

Both modes are useful. Problems arise when we try to do them at the same time. If you judge each idea the moment it appears ("too expensive", "too silly", "someone has done that"), you tend to stop generating early and settle on the first safe option.

That can feed procrastination. Imagine a content creator in Lagos planning her next video series. She sits down to "come up with the perfect idea", criticises every thought, and after twenty minutes of nothing feels deflated and closes the laptop. The task felt impossible because she was asking for a finished answer from a process designed for options. Separating the steps, first list twenty rough ideas without judging, then pick three to evaluate, turns one daunting demand into two manageable ones.

Perfectionistic worry about mistakes can make that early judging especially hard. If that pattern sounds familiar, our article on procrastination and perfectionism explores it further.

Can divergent thinking be improved?

Research suggests that conditions matter. Walking, whether on a treadmill or outside, increased people's output on unusual-uses tasks compared with sitting, during and shortly after the walk, but did not help a task with one correct answer (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014). Breaks filled with undemanding, mind-wandering activities also improved performance on unusual-uses problems people had already seen (Baird et al., 2012).

Divergent thinking also connects to Mednick's idea that creativity involves reaching for remote associations (Mednick, 1962). The more freely your thoughts travel, the more unusual combinations become available. One study found that people who were briefly distracted before listing ideas produced somewhat more unusual ideas (Dijksterhuis & Meurs, 2006), although later attempts to replicate similar effects have been mixed, so this is best treated as suggestive.

What are some simple ways to practise?

You do not need special training. A few low-pressure techniques:

1. Quantity first. Set a timer for five minutes and aim for a number, say fifteen ideas. Silly ones count.
2. Change one variable. Ask "what if it were free, or tiny, or for children, or done in one hour?" Each constraint opens a new direction.
3. Borrow from elsewhere. How would a chef, a gardener or a teacher solve this?
4. Walk and talk. Record voice notes while walking, then transcribe the best bits.
5. Pause, then converge. Only after the list is done, switch modes and choose, using clear criteria.

For example, a retired accountant in Kolkata wanting to stay connected with his former colleagues might list fifteen ideas, from a monthly quiz night to a WhatsApp book club to mentoring junior staff, before choosing the one that fits his energy. A secondary-school student in Toronto stuck on a science-fair topic might list twenty questions about her own kitchen before narrowing to one she can test.

For more on putting creative thinking to work, see the creative thinking page.

Key takeaways

• Guilford distinguished divergent thinking (many possible answers) from convergent thinking (the best answer).
• Both modes matter; trouble comes from judging ideas while trying to generate them.
• Walking and low-demand breaks have been linked to more divergent-thinking output.
• Separating "list" from "choose" can make stuck creative tasks easier to start.
• Practice can be quick and playful: aim for quantity, then converge with clear criteria.

Try it

In the sorting exercise below, you will see a set of everyday activities. Decide whether each one mainly calls for divergent or convergent thinking, then check the explanation for each. When you have finished, continue to Deciding when to delay.