Changes in various areas of life have increased the need for individuals who can think differently and are open to innovation. Education and training activities are important in meeting this need. This study aimed to investigate the social innovation and lateral thinking tendencies of preservice social studies teachers, who will be among the important components of educational activities in the future, in relation to various variables (gender, year of study, grand point average, and level of openness to innovation). The study used a survey research design. The working group consisted of 272 preservice social studies teachers from two different universities who volunteered to participate in the study. The data were collected using the "Social Innovation Scale" and the "Lateral Thinking Disposition Scale". As a result of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test conducted to check the normality of the data, the data were found to be not normally distributed. Thus, the data were analysed using the nonparametric measures including Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The analysis results showed that the preservice social studies teachers' social innovation and lateral thinking tendencies did not significantly differ according to their gender and grade point average (GPA). In contrast, their social innovation tendencies differed statistically significantly according to the year of study, while both social innovation and lateral thinking tendencies differed statistically significantly according to their level of openness to innovation. The analysis results also showed a positive significant correlation between social innovation and lateral thinking, where lateral thinking is a predictor of social Innovation. Accordingly, to promote individuals' social innovation tendencies, the relationship between different thinking and social innovation can be explored and strategies focused on thinking skills can be developed.