“Think in opposites” can be a simple but effective prompt to overcome fixedness in inductive reasoning. It may also boost creativity in general.

Opposition is implied in various types of reasoning processes, probably more than we imagine (for a review see Branchini et al. 2021). It is spontaneously used in everyday situations to suggest alternatives to reality by both children (e.g., Fitzgibbon et al. 2019) and adults (e.g. Byrne 2016, 2018). This presentation offers an overview of the theoretical and empirical reasons supporting the hypothesis that “thinking in opposites” might represent a simple and effective prompt to overcome fixedness in various kinds of inductive reasoning tasks. In the first part of the presentation, we will revise evidence from studies testing the hypothesis in visuo-spatial insight problem solving (Bianchi et al., 2020; Branchini et al 2015). The second part focuses on a new study conducted with 180 Italian adult participants which investigated the effects of this prompt on Wason’s rule discovery task. The study was designed to resolve questions left open from a previous investigation by Branchini et al. (2023). Reflections on the potential and limitations of the project will occupy the conclusion and we will also discuss the results of a pilot study (in progress) which extends the hypothesis to an open-solution creativity task.