Is Negative Affect that Bad? The Effect of Affective States on Conventional and Unconventional Creative Thinking in University Students

Abstract

Introduction. The role of affective states on the creative process has been receiving the attention of researchers and has led to contradictory results. Most research in creativity has emphasized the role of affective states, mainly positive ones, on creativity levels, namely those resulting from divergent thinking tasks that reveal the unconventional way of thinking in the creative process. However, there are no studies to date that focus on the impact of affective states on conventional and unconventional thinking, during the same creative process, which consider a single creative assessment task. The aim of this experimental study was to analyze the effect of induced affective states on both conventional and unconventional thinking of creativity in adults by using the TCT-DP (Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production). Method. Seventy-five university students, mostly female, with a mean age of 26.95 years, were randomly assigned into three affect elicitation conditions (pleasant vs. unpleasant vs. neutral). Results. Results indicated that the negative affective state led to higher levels of conventional thinking when compared to positive and neutral affective states. However, no significant differences were found on unconventional thinking across the three conditions. Conclusions. Our results do not support the assumption that the negative affect has a hindering effect on creativity nor the positive affect increases creativity. Negative affect seems to promote conventional thinking, perhaps due to its cognitive correlates, which can be manifested in focusing attention and analytic thinking. Practical and theoretical implications for future research on the role of affective states on creativity are discussed.