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Cited by 2,986Creativity in Education and NeurosciencePsychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionPsychological and Educational Research Studies

Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving.

Isen, Alice M., Daubman, Kimberly A., Nowicki, Gary P.·1987·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122
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Abstract

Four experiments indicated that positive affect, induced by means of seeing a few minutes of a comedy film or by means of receiving a small bag of candy, improved performance on two tasks that are generally regarded as requiring creative ingenuity: Duncker's (1945) candle task and M. T. Mednick, S. A. Mednick, and E. V. Mednick's (1964) Remote Associates Test. One condition in which negative affect was induced and two in which subjects engaged in physical exercise (intended to represent affectless arousal) failed to produce comparable improvements in creative performance. The influence of positive affect on creativity was discussed in terms of a broader theory of the impact of positive affect on cognitive organization.

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Crossref · 10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122

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  • People tend to maintain positive mood states and focus on moving away or changing their negative mood states.

    “People tend to maintain positive mood states and focus on moving away or changing their negative mood states (Isen et al., 1987).”

    From How personal nostalgia influences giving to charity (2011) · cites this paper as Isen et al., 1987

  • People experiencing positive emotions show broadened, flexible, creative, integrative, open, and efficient patterns of thought.

    “people experiencing positive emotions show patterns of thought that are significantly broadened and diverse (Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985), flexible (Isen & Daubman, 1984), creative (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987), integrative (Isen, Rosenzweig, & Young, 1991), open to information (Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997), and efficient (Isen & Means, 1983;Isen et al., 1991).”

    From The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions (2000) · cites this paper as Isen et al., 1987

  • Positive affect is linked to a creative and more generative mindset that results in greater cognitive flexibility across diverse situations.

    “Consistent with such views, a robust and widely confirmed finding is that positive affect is linked to a creative and more generative mindset that results in greater cognitive flexibility across diverse situations, including medical diagnosis (13, 14), industrial negotiations (15), intuitive judgments (16), decision making (17), and creative problem-solving tasks (18, 19).”

    From Positive affect increases the breadth of attentional selection (2007) · cites this paper as [18]

  • On the RAT, people are more likely to solve unusual word associations when in a positive, compared with negative or neutral, mood.

    “For example, on the remote associates task (RAT; ref. 20), a test of creative problem solving, people are more likely to solve unusual word associations when they are in a positive, compared with negative or neutral, mood (16, 18, 19, 21).”

    From Positive affect increases the breadth of attentional selection (2007) · cites this paper as [18]

  • The result of altered capacity for attentional selection is a broadening of thought-action routines, engendering a broad exploratory rather than narrow vigilant processing mode.

    “The result of this altered capacity for attentional selection is a broadening of thought-action routines (11), engendering a broad exploratory (11, 18, 55) rather than narrow vigilant processing mode (25, 56).”

    From Positive affect increases the breadth of attentional selection (2007) · cites this paper as [18]

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Authors
Isen, A. M., Daubman, K. A., & Nowicki, G. P.
Affiliations
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
ORCID
Daubman, Kimberly A.
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
1987
Volume
52
Issue
6
Pages
1122-1131
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122
OpenAlex
W1996314002
Cited by
2,986
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 56 · 2025: 120 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 129 · 2022: 115 · 2021: 140 · 2020: 124 · 2019: 172 · 2018: 119 · 2017: 144 · 2016: 111 · 2015: 152 · 2014: 161 · 2013: 152 · 2012: 150
FWCI
19.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
U.S. Public Health Service (37452)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Educational Research Studies
Keywords
positive affect, creativity, creative problem solving, negative affect, emotional arousal, physical activity, Remote Associates Test, cognitive organization, humor
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Arousal, Creativity, Female, Humans, Male, Problem Solving, Psychomotor Performance

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