Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products

This study introduces and validates fifty-five prompt questions that help engineering teams identify diverse, high-quality social impacts across all major categories.

Engineers frequently struggle to anticipate how products affect human communities. A team of engineers and social scientists created fifty-five targeted prompt questions across eleven social categories to help designers evaluate broader societal consequences during product creation. Twelve design teams tested these prompts during a controlled one-hour brainstorming experiment. Six control teams relied on basic category labels, while six treatment teams received prompt questions to spark ideas.

Analysis of 1,079 generated ideas showed that teams using prompt questions distributed their focus far more evenly across all social domains. Unprompted groups focused excessively on familiar topics. The prompt questions achieved balanced coverage without reducing the overall quantity, quality, or novelty of ideas. Statistical tests confirmed this uniform performance across multiple confidence intervals.

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APA (7th Edition)

Mattson, C. A., Geilman, T. B., Cook-Wright, J. F., Mabey, C. S., Dahlin, E., & Salmon, J. L. (2024). Fifty-five prompt questions for identifying social impacts of engineered products. Journal of Mechanical Design, 146(1), Article 011402. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063453

MLA (9th Edition)

Mattson, Christopher A., et al. "Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products." Journal of Mechanical Design, vol. 146, no. 1, 2024, p. 011402. ASME Digital Collection, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063453.

Chicago (17th Edition – Author-Date)

Mattson, Christopher A., Thomas B. Geilman, Joshua F. Cook-Wright, Christopher S. Mabey, Eric Dahlin, and John L. Salmon. 2024. "Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products." Journal of Mechanical Design 146 (1): 011402. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063453.

Chicago (17th Edition – Notes & Bibliography)

Bibliography Entry: Mattson, Christopher A., Thomas B. Geilman, Joshua F. Cook-Wright, Christopher S. Mabey, Eric Dahlin, and John L. Salmon. "Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products." Journal of Mechanical Design 146, no. 1 (2024): 011402. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063453.

Footnote / Endnote Format: Christopher A. Mattson, Thomas B. Geilman, Joshua F. Cook-Wright, Christopher S. Mabey, Eric Dahlin, and John L. Salmon, "Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products," Journal of Mechanical Design 146, no. 1 (2024): 011402, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063453.

IEEE

C. A. Mattson, T. B. Geilman, J. F. Cook-Wright, C. S. Mabey, E. Dahlin, and J. L. Salmon, "Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products," Proc. ASME J. Mech. Des., vol. 146, no. 1, Art. no. 011402, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.1115/1.4063453.

BibTeX

@article{mattson2024fifty,
  author    = {Mattson, Christopher A. and Geilman, Thomas B. and Cook-Wright, Joshua F. and Mabey, Christopher S. and Dahlin, Eric and Salmon, John L.},
  title     = {Fifty-Five Prompt Questions for Identifying Social Impacts of Engineered Products},
  journal   = {Journal of Mechanical Design},
  volume    = {146},
  number    = {1},
  pages     = {011402},
  year      = {2024},
  publisher = {American Society of Mechanical Engineers},
  doi       = {10.1115/1.4063453}
}