Enforcing pragmatic future‐mindedness cures the innovator's bias

The innovator's bias is defined as the tendency for innovators to focus mainly on positive potential impact of their inventions and neglect, ignore, or downplay any negative impact. Such may help sustain motivation needed business success but create problems by failing acknowledge prepare problematic outcomes. We report three studies (total n = 1608) designed demonstrate this bias—and show how overcome it (while ideally preserving innovators' enthusiastic affection product). Three used hypothetical innovations, all with downsides. Feelings ownership were manipulated having some participants role-play being marketing manager, including naming product, devising advertising slogans, identifying target demographics purchasers. Owners then rated while nonowner controls a different product. Study 1 (n 495) demonstrated showing that owners likely consequences product more favorably than nonowners did. also displayed zeal 2 553) tested interventions aimed at reducing zeal. Of six interventions, most successful was imagine worst-case scenario involving outcome invention could cause. 3 560) preregistered replication main findings from (osf.io/ew9cq).