Writers and artists are 8 – 10 times more likely to suffer mood disorders than the general public. Does this show what many have long believed: that truly creative people are a bit odd? Maybe, but I think is has more to say about the importance of mood on creativity.
So what does it take to be ‘in the mood’ to be creative? The advice around producing a creative atmosphere, for example for brainstorming, has always been to foster a trusting, positive mood. Rubbish! The results just don’t support this ‘best practice’ view. Both positive and negative moods have been linked to improved creative performance. For example, watching tapes of stand-up comics increases the frequency of creative insight. Whereas being blasted with negative feedback improves the creativity and quality of paintings produced afterwards.
To help make sense of this, I want to refer to some lovely research at the University of Amsterdam. It was shown that creative output is less about whether the mood is positive or negative, but how extreme the mood is. They classed moods as being ‘activating’ (happiness, anger, fear) or ‘deactivating’ (calm, relaxed, sad, depressed). Activating moods – both positive and negative -caused a surge in creativity, deactivating moods had little effect.
There is a difference of course, before all you leaders out there start ranting and raving at your teams to spark their powers of innovation. Anger and fear – even simply seeing someone being shouted at – have been shown to narrow people’s thought processes. People observe and think less expansively, making fewer lateral insights. However they are more persistent and urgent. So if creativity is what’s required, people will work hard at creativity. It’s unlikely to be truly breakthrough originality, but it will be good and solid creative output.
On the other hand, people who are happy and having fun (activating states) also produce more creative ideas, but this time from more cognitive flexibility. One of the central mechanisms in the brain for generating insight is the ability of the brain to switch from one line of thought to another; to see a problem from a different perspective. Happy people do this much more than those either in a deactivating or a negative mood. They also think and see more widely, they are more likely to spot things (physically or intellectually) that can help lead to insight that others simply miss. Genuinely new thinking is more likely to emerge from happiness.
There you have it, if you want your team (or yourself) to create, the last thing you should do is make everyone relaxed and comfortable (or sad). Get them going! Fire them up with anger or fear: they’ll produce a lot of creative stuff, though it may be more mechanical. Or help them to have a lot of fun: and stand back as the ideas fly!
So are truly creative people mad? The chances are they just experience more extreme moods, or put themselves in situations that generate stronger reactions (good or bad) than most of us. When they are at their best, ‘creatives’ probably are mad (angry)…or maybe just really happy.
Key Reference:
Carsten K. W. De Dreu, Matthijs Baas, and Bernard A. Nijstad (2008) Hedonic Tone and Activation Level in the Mood–Creativity Link: Toward a Dual Pathway to Creativity Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2008, Vol. 94, No. 5, 739–756
usable psychology 
Managing creativity 😉
I can picture more or less all you write here working with me except fear… Anger? In personal settings – oh yeah! Though – with anger one might parallel lose concentration or part of it & therefore not benefit from the creative state really, no?
Fear as panic would cut my hands off & disable me in most aspects:) Perhaps fear as uncertainty or as decreasing [environmental & situative] complacency would have some positive correlation with increasing creativity as it should cut to the quick of “imagine the way out” or for some cases touch the self-pitty or weltschmerz which as you say – energize;)
Contextually I see your points being easily valid out side of work environment.
Fear & anger @ work gun-fire’ing lyrics is bit difficult for me to imagine. Anger against competitor – mhmh, yes – that can storm the brain; anger against manager – mhmh, yes -> but the birth pain of these ideas would be mirrored in them and would only become the negatives of the manager’s initial terror, therefore these results are no good (for the manager).
But for the most I am amazed how indeed the feel-good, enjoyment and sincere happiness urge for nothing but for continuum of the status quo. Question – what about person’s concentration during being happy? Shouldn’t it be easier then?
Astrid
As for anger, you say there might be a loss of concenration and therefore not benefit. This is true. In fact, there is a temporary increase in mental disorder as a result of anger. Funnily enough though, this can minimize the narrowing of focus that can result from anger and can lead to spurious (and sometimes insightful) new connections being made. It’s a prett short-lived thing though.
Fear. Think ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Societies often make their biggest breakthroughs in times of war. There are also loads of examples of people like Walt Disney, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, all of whom wee not averse to blasting their teams, stimulating creativity through anger (but presumably causing fear in the audience).
As for concentration when happy…well flow states are associated with happiness, and deep concentration is core to these. However, you could argue, since the field of view is broader, the mind might be more likely to meander (and this might be really useful)
Tony
I took a team to a pub one afternoon recently. We fed them a beer (or two, but no more), chips (fries) and some sandwiches. We had a laugh. We got them to envision the next long term growth opportunities in their industry and the route to get there. They loved it. So there we have it: The Deansgate Pub, central Manchester is they key to all this creativity lark. (Or am I missing the point?)
Ian. You’ve cracked it! Beer, chips and a Central Manchester pub is the solution to everything! I don’t think we’re good at harnessing fun productively. Organizations often do fun off-sites, but the purpose is often simply to boost morale or build teams. These are worthy goals, but when people are having fun, in that moment, greatness can occur – if we use it. So having a laugh in The Deansgate while envisioning the future is the way to go.
Tony
We all start life as true ‘Creatives’ learning to walk, talk, sense, see, question until we grow out of this amazing phase and/or have the impulses ‘schooled’ out of us. But it is a birthright and a latency for the rest of our lives, albeit with a small ‘c’ for most of us.
HUNGER. Desire. When we, small ‘c’s have an impulse to write, think, paint, whatever, do we stay up all night to explore every last particle of what we are experiencing (where’s that absinthe ?) or do we go to bed with a hot milk because of work / the school run … or watch TV ?
Creative stimuli: ie Wooing that girl .. Unrequited love a major stimulus. Robert Burns a serial seducer with his poems. Picasso & his muses, replaced by younger models (funny thing that).
The irony is that our brains are both our friend & enemy in this cause. By this I mean that we only register/see things that are different. In our daily routine we tick over on autopilot, in a state of low arousal, akin to sleepwalking. It takes effort to break out of the rut and for most of us in the U3A bracket removed from the primal urges of providing shelter, food, finding a mate etc( Maslow), its all too easy to coast …
Are men more often Creative than women ? (May have just halved my christmas card list..) Before I get abused, is it less important for the stronger/fairer sex because they are more rooted emotionally than men quite apart from historical/social reasons and greater domestic resposibility? Genuine question.
Sorry for waffling on Tony but it is such a great subject .. Regards Peter
I think you touch on an important and broader subject: energy. I am a big believer – but not always follower – of the principle of ‘energy in equals energy out’. Even last night, we were shattered. All we wanted to do was curl up in front of the TV with a bottle of red wine. However, we had organized for our friend to come round for an evening of painting. It turned out to be a much better, but also more re-energizing, evening than Rioja and Simon Cowell could have ever provided! Even though my painting was rubbish.
On the subject of creative stimuli…I remember reading about the stoics from greek philosophy who believed in living a life of contentment which sought to avoid extremes of either sort. One of the big proponents used to only eat bread and water – a really great meal would lead to future disappointment because that meal was less good. I would prefer the other extreme, but I think we all have to take a view on the degree to which we want our pendulum to swing (see my earlier blog re risk preference). From a creative point of view, clearly the more extreme life leads to more emotion, more creative stimulation. Though, life isn’t simply about creativity. The path less travelled isn’t for everyone. I remember a good friend of mine passionately defending the benefits and attractions of being normal and average. To sum him up, he said that average has to be good, since so many people choose it.
As to the men vs women thing…I have genuinely never seen any research to that effect. I do have a friend who holds a deeply unscientific opinion that men tend to get more boring as they age and drift into slippers and grumpy old man syndrome. Women, so the theory goes, go in the opposite direction as burdens of parental duties lessen, many women re-create themselves. Let the debate rage!!!