Imagine you have three objects: a candle, matches, and a box of thumbtacks. How can you use all these items to prevent wax from dripping on the table?…
This study was published posthumously - it is attributed to Karl Duncker. It measures cognitive flexibility, creativity, and problem solving. It is known as the “Candle Problem”.
In the 1970s Alice Isen used it to assess how mood affects cognitive performance. She broke participants into two groups. One group was given a gift of candy and the other was not. The idea being that those who got the “unexpected gift” of candy would be in a better mood. That was the case. People in a good mood performed better on the “Candle Problem”.
PS — the solution is to use the tacks to pin the box (which contained the tacks) to the wall then put the candle in the box.
There seems to be a “two-way street” connecting happiness and creativity.
In other words, engaging in creative and innovative activities makes us happy. At the same time when we experience positive emotion, we tend to be more creative and innovative.
Book titles and headlines tout creativity and innovation but it begs the question — how do we actually become more creative or more innovative?
Prioritizing happiness (the many varieties of positive emotions) may be the way.
One study of 658 students found that high-activation positive emotions like excitement and enthusiasm, enhanced everyday creativity (1).
A meta-analysis of about 25 years of studies found that positive moods produce more creativity than mood-neutral controls (2). Creativity is enhanced most by positive states that are activating and have an “approach motivation”. An activating positive emotion would be excitement as opposed to blissful relaxation. An approach motivation (say, inspiration) contrasts with an avoidance motivation (like fear) (2). Finally, it’s worth noting that emotions like fear and anxiety (common under stress) were associated with lower creativity (often measured as cognitive flexibility) (2).
The corresponds to research by Barbara Fredrickson who found that eliciting positive emotion expands thought-action repertoires (3). The thought-action repertoire is a way of assessing cognitive flexibility — it is an assessment of the range of thoughts and actions available to you when prompted with a given situation. One way to measure this is to ask people to imagine feeling a certain emotion, then list all the things they would like to do right now. They are given 20 lines beginning with “I would like to _____.” A higher score out of 20 indicates a more expansive range of responses (associated with cognitive flexibility).
It seems that intentionally supporting active, positive emotional states (excitement, enthusiasm, joy, etc.) is a clear mechanism for supporting creativity and innovation. This of course has implications for personal life, education, and organizational strategy.
Connections