Combined Effects of Background Music and Nonverbal Synchrony Measures on Group Creativity —A Multiple Regression Approach—

Abstract

Investigating music literature there are indeed many focusing on the ways to observe its impact on individual creativity. However, to our knowledge the view that groups creativity can be influenced through music listening has not been studied. In this paper we support our previous research on impacts of BGM on group creativity; with the purpose of explaining group creativity outcome using interpersonal indices of behavior. To do so, we address the role of head nodding and inter-brain synchronization (IBS) while music listening in improving group creativity and try to illustrate optimal prediction model of both originality and fluency indices. As the task procedure participants were asked to solve five alternative uses tasks (AUT), while either listening to four combinations of music valence/genre or listening to no music as control condition. Multiple regression with stepwise variable selection revealed that music listening (especially with upbeat and positive valence) and higher IBS in the medial PFC predicts higher fluency, i.e. more ideas. For the index of originality only the upbeat positive music and HMS showed significant contribution. This study suggests the promising prospect of group creativity facilitation system that evaluates communication state by using physical and brain measurement, and control the communication by using music as feedback.