# The Effects of Generative AI on Design Fixation and Divergent Thinking

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.11164 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11164/

## Key facts

- Cited by 37 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 37)

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- [Diverse AI Personas Can Mitigate the Homogenization Effect in Human-AI Collaborative Ideation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13868/) (2025)
- [Exploring Collaborative GenAI Agents in Synchronous Group Settings: Eliciting Team Perceptions and Design Considerations for the Future of Work](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14779/) (2025)
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- [StoryEnsemble: Enabling Dynamic Exploration & Iteration in the Design Process with AI and Forward-Backward Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03182/) (2025)
- [The AI Memory Gap: Users Misremember What They Created With AI or Without](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11851/) (2025)
- [Exploration vs. Fixation: Scaffolding Divergent and Convergent Thinking for Human-AI Co-Creation with Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.18388/) (2025)
- [Imagining Design Workflows in Agentic AI Futures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20731/) (2025)
- [Supporting Creative Ownership through Deep Learning-Based Music Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25834/) (2025)
- [Beyond Input-Output: Rethinking Creativity through Design-by-Analogy in Human-AI Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.09423/) (2026)
- ["When to Hand Off, When to Work Together": Understanding Concurrent Human-Agent Interaction in Shared Co-Creative Workspaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02050/) (2026)
- [Creo: From One-Shot Image Generation to Progressive, Co-Creative Ideation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13956/) (2026)
- [When Discourse Stalls: Moving Past Five Semantic Stopsigns about Generative AI in Design Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08565/) (2025)
- [Feed-O-Meter: Investigating AI-Generated Mentee Personas as Interactive Agents for Scaffolding Design Feedback Practice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07424/) (2025)
- [Progressive Ideation using an Agentic AI Framework for Human-AI Co-Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.00475/) (2026)
- [Generative AI Assisted Workflows in Architectural Conceptual Design: Performance, Creative Self-Efficacy, and Cognitive Load](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.10696/) (2026)
- [The Perfection Paradox: From Architect to Curator in AI-Assisted API Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.12475/) (2026)
- [ExpressEdit: Fast Editing of Stylized Facial Expressions with Diffusion Models in Photoshop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03448/) (2026)
- [Brief2Design: A Multi-phased, Compositional Approach to Prompt-based Graphic Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11019/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Generative AI systems have been heralded as tools for augmenting human creativity and inspiring divergent thinking, though with little empirical evidence for these claims. This paper explores the effects of exposure to AI-generated images on measures of design fixation and divergent thinking in a visual ideation task. Through a between-participants experiment (N=60), we found that support from an AI image generator during ideation leads to higher fixation on an initial example. Participants who used AI produced fewer ideas, with less variety and lower originality compared to a baseline. Our qualitative analysis suggests that the effectiveness of co-ideation with AI rests on participants' chosen approach to prompt creation and on the strategies used by participants to generate ideas in response to the AI's suggestions. We discuss opportunities for designing generative AI systems for ideation support and incorporating these AI tools into ideation workflows.