Shedding light on insight: Priming bright ideas

Slepian, Michael L.; Weisbuch, Max; Rutchick, Abraham M.; Newman, Leonard S.; Ambady, Nalini

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.009

Cited by 43 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…First, going beyond important extant research, we showed that metaphors can be induced through simple images and that such metaphors can alter creative output. While earlier work has shown that physically turning on an actual light bulb can increase creativity (e.g., Slepian et al, 2010), we showed that the metaphoric representation of light alone has a similar effect. We also went a step further than these important prior investigations on the metaphor–cognition link by finding evidence that negative metaphors can lower consumers' creative cognition.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 44%

“…The goal of Experiment 2 was to investigate a generally overlooked aspect of the metaphor–cognition relationship—namely, the effect of negative metaphors. Building on the “I just had a light go on” metaphor used in prior research (e.g., Slepian et al, 2010), Experiment 2 made use of the related but negative metaphor “I am burnt out.” For this metaphor, six different burnt‐out light bulb images were pretested to see whether they carried metaphorical meaning. The majority of 39 independent raters categorized one of them as conveying the negative metaphor of being burnt out (see image in ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Metaphors and creativity: Direct, moderating, and mediating effects

2013

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Through five experiments, this research advances knowledge about the influence of metaphors on creative cognition by showing that perceiving images that carry metaphoric meaning can alter consumers' creativity. While the results of Experiment 1 reveal that positive metaphors representing ideas like “Thinking outside the box” increase creative output, Experiment 2 uncovers that a negative metaphor conveying “I am burnt out” decreases it. Experiment 3 shows that the metaphor–creativity link is moderated by analogical reasoning skills, and Experiments 4a and 4b reveal the mediating role of creative intent. In addition to implying that marketers can use metaphors to enhance consumers' creative feedback in areas like new product development, this research also makes important theoretical contributions by showing (1) that metaphors that are visually conveyed (in addition to tangible objects or physical exercises) can not only raise but also lower creative output, (2) that a unique cognitive skill alters the metaphor–creativity link, and (3) that consumers' creative intent contributes to that relationship.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 44%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaphors and creativity: Direct, moderating, and mediating effects

2013

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“…Hence, we use Mechanical Turk in our studies, because it provides low recruitment costs and immediate access to hundreds of participants. While limitations of Mechanical Turk do not allow us to verify accurate demographic information of the participants, previous studies [21,35,39] have reported that the demographics of Mechanical Turkers are similar to typical Internet users, i.e., the majority are between 18-40 years old and slightly more educated than the general US population. The ratio of male to female is 45% to 55%.…”

Section: Amazon Mechanical Turkmentioning

confidence: 93%

Affective computational priming and creativity

Lewis

Dontcheva

Gerber

2011

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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While studies have shown that affect influences creativity, few investigate how affect influences creative performance with creativity support tools. Drawing from methods commonly used in psychology research, we present affective computational priming, a new method for manipulating affect using digitally embedded stimuli. We present two studies that explore computational techniques for inducing positive, neutral, and negative affect and examine their impact on idea generation with creativity support tools. Our results suggest that positive affective computational priming positively influences the quality of ideas generated. We discuss opportunities for future HCI research and offer practical applications of affective computational priming. INTRODUCTIONCreative professionals, such as engineers, scientists, and designers, increasingly rely on technology to complete creative tasks at work. They use web browsers to conduct research and search for inspiration. They document projects on wikis in order to collaborate with others. They depend on graphic design software and word processors to design and create. In response, human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers have started building creativity support tools, or software to enhance creative performance [37].

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“…The shared remote associate constitutes the solution; the number of correctly solved items serves as the measure of creativity. The RAT has been widely used in creativity research (e.g., Isen et al, 1987;Maddux & Galinsky, 2009;Markman et al, 2007;Mednick, 1962;Slepian, Weisbuch, Rutchick, Newman, & Ambady, 2010;Voss, 1977). Yet, doubts have been raised with regard to the processes mediating performance in the RAT (Harkins, 2006;see also Topolinski & Deutsch, 2009;Topolinski & Strack, 2008).…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Suspicious spirits, flexible minds: When distrust enhances creativity.

Mayer¹,

Mussweiler²

2011

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Intuitively, as well as in light of prior research, distrust and creativity appear incompatible. The social consequences of distrust include reluctance to share information, a quality detrimental to creativity in social settings. At the same time, the cognitive concomitants of distrust bear resemblance to creative cognition: Distrust seems to foster thinking about nonobvious alternatives to potentially deceptive appearances. These cognitive underpinnings of distrust hold the provocative implication that distrust may foster creativity. Mirroring these contradictory findings, we suggest that the social versus cognitive consequences of distrust have diverging implications for creativity. We address this question in Study 1 by introducing private/public as a moderating variable for effects of distrust on creativity. Consistent with distrust's social consequences, subliminal distrust (vs. trust) priming had detrimental effects on creative generation presumed to be public. Consistent with distrust's cognitive consequences, though, an opposite tendency emerged in private. Study 2 confirmed a beneficial effect of distrust on private creative generation with a different priming method and pointed to cognitive flexibility as the mediating process. Studies 3 and 4 showed increased category inclusiveness versus increased remote semantic spread after distrust priming, consistent with enhanced cognitive flexibility as a consequence of distrust. Taken together, these results provide evidence for the creativity-enhancing potential of distrust and suggest cognitive flexibility as its underlying mechanism.

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Shedding light on insight: Priming bright ideas

Cited by 43 publications

References 27 publications

Metaphors and creativity: Direct, moderating, and mediating effects

Metaphors and creativity: Direct, moderating, and mediating effects

Affective computational priming and creativity

Suspicious spirits, flexible minds: When distrust enhances creativity.

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