The Power of Brevity: Creativity Judgments in English Language Haiku and Senryu Poetry

Abstract

Understanding how creativity is judged in brief, structured texts is essential for exploring aesthetic and emotional engagement in minimalist art forms. Haiku and Senryu, two concise poetic genres, provide a unique lens to investigate how creativity is perceived under constraints of brevity. This study examines how readers' subjective experiences of poems, their personality traits, and the structure of their semantic memory networks influence creativity judgments. Fifty-one participants evaluated 140 English-language poems (70 Haiku and 70 Senryu) and 70 nonpoetic control texts in a laboratory experiment. Participants rated each stimulus on aesthetic appeal, vivid imagery, emotionality, originality, and overall creativity. They also completed seven personality assessments, and their semantic memory networks were estimated by a verbal fluency task. We found originality to be the strongest predictor of creativity in both poetic genres. However, the influence of aesthetic appeal and emotionality varied: Haiku balanced aesthetic beauty and emotional resonance, while Senryu prioritized emotional resonance. Personality traits, including the vividness of visual and auditory imagery, significantly influenced creativity judgments. Participants who favored Haiku exhibited more efficient and flexible semantic memory networks. This study provides novel insights into how creativity is evaluated in constrained poetic forms, offering broader implications for creativity in structured art.