Inspired by art: Higher aesthetic appeal elicits increased felt inspiration in a creative writing task

Abstract

Moments of creative inspiration – externally evoked motivation for creative activity – form a distinct step in creative processes. We hypothesize that the psychological state of being creatively inspired is similar to the state of being aesthetically “moved,” and that aesthetically moving experiences can serve as prompts for creative inspiration. In Experiment 1, 25 participants wrote short creative texts in response to “aesthetic” prompts (visual artworks they highly-liked) or “non-aesthetic” prompts (triads of unrelated words). Participants then rated how inspired they had felt during idea generation. Ratings of felt inspiration were significantly higher for aesthetic vs. non-aesthetic prompts. In Experiment 2, 34 participants performed the same task with prompts consisting of highly-liked, disliked, or novel artworks they didn’t rate in advance. While pre-exposure to the stimuli had no significant effect, felt inspiration was significantly higher for liked vs. disliked prompts, and post-test aesthetic ratings of novel artworks were positively correlated with felt inspiration. Furthermore, inspiration ratings correlated positively with the amount of produced text. Being aesthetically moved increases the likelihood of creative inspiration, a finding with implications both for the study of creative and aesthetic processes and also for the potential role of the arts in educational settings.