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The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers With IELTS Passage

authorImageShruti Kumari10 Sept, 2025
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The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers

The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers passage explores how creativity shapes business success and teamwork. It highlights Robert Cialdini’s views and real-world examples. Like pulling strings to build pyramids IELTS reading answer key, it shows innovation needs the right environment. This passage is part of popular IELTS Reading Topics and helps learners practise different IELTS Reading Question Types

Students preparing for the IELTS Reading Test Format, IELTS Reading multiple choice questions, or IELTS Reading Sentence Completion Questions will find it useful. It also guides on IELTS READING structure and how to improve score for a better IELTS Reading Band Score.

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The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Passage

The Psychology of Innovation Reading Answers with passage gives learners a complete understanding of how creativity drives progress. It helps students practice IELTS Reading Topics while exploring teamwork, leadership, and business innovation in context.

The Psychology of Innovation Reading Passage

Paragraph A: Innovation is an essential element in business survival and companies invest significant amounts of resources in their employees to develop novel ideas. As the people find that their environment doesn’t make them creative, they work in luxurious and state-of-the-art centres which simulate innovation. And, there are people who don’t have that much budget or space, but are still able to innovate. 

Paragraph B: Professor of Psychology at Arizona State of University Robert B. Cialdini states that innovation must begin with recruitment, without that, companies might struggle to succeed. Research suggests that the fit between a company's values and an employee’s values matters. It can tell what contribution they will make in the company. Studies done in Harvard Business school show that although some individuals normally are more creative than others, all individuals can be creative if they are in the right circumstances. 

Paragraph C: Cialdin’s views are reflected in one of the most popular photographs in the story of rock and roll. The picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano, which was taken in 1956 in Sun Studios in Memphis, tells a hidden story. Sun’s ‘million dollar quartet’ could be a quintet. Roy Orbison, a greater natural singer than Lewis, Perkins or Cash, is the one who is missing in the picture. The owner of the Sun, Sam Philips, wanted to transform popular music with songs - a fusion of black and white music and country and blues. Presley, Cash, Perkins and Lewis understood the ambition of the Philips intuitively and believed in it. Orbison wasn’t motivated by the goal, and he achieved one hit with Sun Label.

Paragraph D: Cialdini says, the value fit is important as innovation is a process of change and as a species, we behave differently when we are under pressure. Then, managers must adopt the counterintuitive approach, they should explain what loss the company will face if they don’t capture a particular opportunity. Studies suggest that we are ready to take more gambles when threatened with loss than when offered a reward.

Paragraph E: Innovation management is a delicate art. Companies can be pulled easily in conflicting directions such as marketing, product development, and finance departments. Each of them gets different feedback from different sets of people. And, without a system, collaborative exchanges could happen within the company but small pockets of innovation could also disappear. Innovation is a contact game, in which you can’t brief people only by saying, “We’re going in this direction and I’m going to take you with me”. 

Paragraph F: Cialdini believes that ‘follow the leader syndrome’ is problematic, not only because it motivates the bosses to go it alone. Scientific fact says that three people will be better in solving the problems than one person, even if that person is smartest in his or her field. Cialdini mentions the interview with molecular biologist James Watson to prove his point. Watson discovered the DNA structure, the genetic information carrier of all living organisms, along with Francis Crick. When asked how they cracked the code before the highly accomplished rival investigators, the answer Cialdini got stunned him. He said that he and Crick accomplished it because they were aware that they weren’t the only intelligent scientists who were pursuing the answer. Watson said that Rosalind Franklin is the smartest scientist and was so brilliant that she rarely seeks advice. 

Paragraph G: Teamwork triggers one of the basic drives of human behaviour. CIaldini says that the social proof principle is so pervasive that we don’t even recognize it. For example, if one’s project is being resisted by the veteran employees, one should ask an old-timer to speak up for it. Cialdini is not the only person advocating this strategy. Research shows that more than a boss’s speech, using the peer power horizontally rather than vertically is more effective. 

Paragraph H: The flow of ideas can be stimulated by writing, visualising and prototyping.  By taking account of research papers and historical events, Cialdini proves that even simple acts such as writing can increase an individual's engagement with the project. He says, the intent behind the competitions which asks us to write like, ‘I like Kellog’s Corn Flakes because…..’ is that the act of writing itself makes us likely to believe it. 

Paragraph I: Authority often interferes with innovation, even though it doesn’t have to. The  poor leadership could lead us to what Cialdini calls “captainitis” which is the regrettable tendency of team members to opt out team responsibilities that are properly theirs. He mentions it captainitis by saying, “crew members of multi-pilot aircraft exhibit a sometimes deadly passivity when the flight captain makes a clearly wrong-headed decision”. This behaviour is not only restricted to air travel, but it can happen in any workplace, where the leader is dominating. 

Paragraph J: On the other hand, in the 1980s, Memphis design collective, the only rule for the group of young designers is no rule. This environment motivated them to exchange ideas in a free manner, which led them to create more different forms, functions, colours and materials that elevated the attitudes toward furniture design to a different level. 

Paragraph K: Most of the theorists believe that an ideal boss should possess some of the qualities such as leading from behind, gratified by the collective accomplishment and providing credit where it is due. Cialdini says that leaders should encourage all the individuals to contribute and give importance to every recommendation to make the correct decision and will give full attention. The annoying thing about innovation is it comprises a variety of approaches, it doesn't have a clear cut formula . Still, by recognising this psychological truth, a manager can make a truly innovative culture which makes their job a lot easier.

The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Sample Questions 

Sample questions on The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers let candidates explore IELTS Reading Question Types. These include multiple choice, sentence completion, and matching headings. Practicing them improves reading accuracy, speed, and confidence for the IELTS Reading Test Format.

Sample Questions on IELTS The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers
Question Type Question / Instruction
Multiple Choice According to Cialdini, where must innovation begin for companies to succeed?
True/False/Not Given Roy Orbison was part of the Sun Studio “million dollar quartet” in 1956.
Matching Information Match: 1. Memphis Design Collective 2. Watson & Crick 3. Kellogg’s competition
Sentence Completion Innovation management is described as a _______ art due to conflicting directions within companies.
Short Answer Question What psychological principle makes peer support more effective than boss instructions?
Multiple Choice What problem does Cialdini call “captainitis”?
Matching Headings Match headings: 1. Pressure and loss 2. Role of authority 3. Teamwork as driver
True/False/Not Given Cialdini says the smartest individuals always innovate better than teams.
Sentence Completion According to Cialdini, writing about projects can increase ______ with them.
Short Answer Question What qualities should an ideal boss show to support innovation?

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IELTS The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers

IELTS The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers guide test takers to understand key IELTS Reading structures. It explains how innovation links to real business settings while helping learners improve IELTS Reading Band Score through systematic practice of IELTS Reading multiple choice questions and sentence completion tasks.

IELTS The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers
Question Type Question / Instruction Answer
Multiple Choice According to Cialdini, where must innovation begin for companies to succeed? Recruitment
True/False/Not Given Roy Orbison was part of the Sun Studio “million dollar quartet” in 1956. False – he was absent because he did not share the vision.
Matching Information Match: 1. Memphis Design Collective 2. Watson & Crick 3. Kellogg’s competition 1 → Free exchange of ideas; 2 → Collaboration in DNA discovery; 3 → Writing increases belief
Sentence Completion Innovation management is described as a _______ art due to conflicting directions within companies. delicate
Short Answer Question What psychological principle makes peer support more effective than boss instructions? Social proof principle
Multiple Choice What problem does Cialdini call “captainitis”? Team members showing passivity under dominating leadership
Matching Headings Match headings: 1. Pressure and loss 2. Role of authority 3. Teamwork as driver 1 → Paragraph D; 2 → Paragraph I; 3 → Paragraph G
True/False/Not Given Cialdini says the smartest individuals always innovate better than teams. False – teams of three are more effective than one smartest person.
Sentence Completion According to Cialdini, writing about projects can increase ______ with them. engagement
Short Answer Question What qualities should an ideal boss show to support innovation? Lead from behind, value contributions, share credit
 

Guidance to PW IELTS Prep

IELTS Online Courses is a great initiative Physics Wallah took to help IELTS aspirants better prepare for the exam. Follow our below pages to learn more about the IELTS exam. 
IELTS Reading Band Score IELTS Listening Band Score
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IELTS The Psychology Of Innovation Reading Answers FAQs

What is the main theme of The Psychology of Innovation Reading Passage?

It explores how psychology, teamwork, and leadership influence innovation in business and creative environments.

Who is the key researcher mentioned in The Psychology of Innovation Reading Passage?

Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, is the central figure discussed.

What does Cialdini say about teamwork in innovation?

He believes collaboration is more effective than relying on one smartest individual.

What problem is described as “captainitis” in the passage?

It refers to team members becoming passive under dominating leadership.
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