The effects of emotions on creativity

Two experiments that examined the relationship between affect and creativity were conducted, In the pilot experiment it was hypothesized that participants' creativity would be enhanced by experiencing emotion of any kind. The results were not significant. The lack of the significance may be explained by Abele's (1992) theory; this theory suggests that creativity has a mood-restoring function. Therefore, in the following experiment it was hypothesized that if an affective state was manipulated at unconscious level (cognitive influences were minimized), only negative affect would facilitate creativity because a need for mood repair would tend to catalyze creativity. Positive affect would decrease creativity because no mood repair would be necessary. To test these hypotheses 67 undergraduate psychology students were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions: a “sad mood” condition, where the emotion of “sadness” was induced, an “anger” condition where the emotion of “anger” was induced, a “happy mood” condition, where the emotion of “happiness” was induced and a control condition where no affect was induced. The participants in the “sadness” and the “anger” conditions were expected to have their creativity enhanced by the affect manipulation, while the participants in the “happiness” condition were expected to have their creativity decreased. The participants in the control condition were expected to have no changes in their creativity. The results did not support the hypothesis.