The Impact Of Specific Negative Emotions On Creative Problem Solving

This study selected anger and sadness as representatives of negative emotions,and took college students as subjects to explore the impact of negative emotions on creative problem solving,in order to deeply reveal the influencing factors and mechanisms of creative problem solving,and provide support for improving the efficiency of people’s creative activities.This study included three experiments,which explored the impact of specific negative emotions(anger and sadness)on creative problem solving in general situations,the impact of anger and sadness on creative problem solving in the presence or absence of others,and the impact of anger and sadness on creative problem solving using different emotion regulation strategies.The findings of the study are:(1)In general situations,the creative problem-solving performance of subjects with angry emotions was significantly lower than that of subjects with neutral emotions,and the creative problem-solving performance of subjects with sad emotions was significantly lower than that of subjects with neutral emotions.There was no significant difference between the creative problem-solving performance of subjects with angry emotions and those with sad emotions,It indicates that anger and sadness inhibit creativity.(2)When eliciting anger,the creative problem solving performance in the absence of others was significantly better than that in the presence of others;When inducing sadness,there was no significant difference between the creative problem solving performance in the absence of others and the performance in the presence of others.(3)When inducing anger,using cognitive reappraisal strategies significantly reduced the participants’ experience of anger;When inducing sadness in subjects,using cognitive reappraisal strategies can significantly reduce their sadness experience,while using expression inhibition strategies can also significantly reduce their sadness experience.When eliciting anger,subjects using cognitive reappraisal strategies significantly promoted their creativity;When inducing sadness,using cognitive reappraisal strategies can significantly promote the creativity of subjects,while using expression inhibition strategies can also significantly promote the creativity of subjects.