Size of arm movements influence the production of divergent ideas

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that the physical movements of participants influence creativity thinking. We examined whether another type of movements (bigger or smaller arm movements) modulates creative idea productions. In Experiment 1 participants were required to generate new names for rice after performing bigger or smaller arm movements. Bigger arm movements were associated with more divergent idea productions (e.g., non-typical ideas) compared to smaller arm movements. In Experiment 2, another task was used to generate as many ideas as possible for creative gifts the participants might give to an acquaintance, and the results showed the possibility that bigger arm movements led to more flexible idea generation than did smaller one. Taken together, the current study suggested the size of movements modulated creative thinking: bigger ones increased divergent creative thinking, possibly because bigger physical movements facilitate the divergent cognitive processing mode.