Abstract
The regulatory effect of embodied emotion on one’s general emotion and the impact of the compatibility or incompatibility of the two types of emotion on creative thinking are still debatable. The purpose of this study is to investigate these issues experimentally. In Experiment 1, participants completed an explicit positive and negative emotion test [Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)] and an implicit positive and negative emotion test [Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT)] twice on a computer after emotional video priming was used to induce negative emotions and facial expression manipulation was performed to induce embodied positive or negative emotions. It was found that maintaining the expression of a suppressed smile was helpful in regulating negative emotions (p = 0.047). Specifically, the implicit negative emotions induced by facial expression manipulation had a positive regulating effect on the implicit negative emotions induced by the video (T1, M = 47.813; to T2, M = 44.188). In Experiment 2, the positive or negative emotions of the participants were induced using emotional videos, and facial expression manipulation was used to induce their embodied positive or negative emotions. Then, the participants completed a creative test by completing alternative use tasks (AUTs) and Chinese character riddles. The AUT fluency score in the emotionally compatible group was significantly higher than that in the emotionally incompatible group (p = 0.032), but while experiencing negative emotions, the emotionally compatible group had a significantly higher originality score and insight in Chinese character riddle score than the emotionally incompatible group (p = 0.017, p = 0.004). Therefore, embodied negative emotion has a significant regulating effect on implicit negative emotion. The compatibility of emotion activated by facial expression and viewing a video contributes to creative thinking, whereas the incompatibility of emotion hinders creative thinking. The compatibility of emotion under positive emotions improved thinking fluency, whereas under negative emotions, it activated originality and insight in creative thinking. The influence of such emotional compatibility on creative thinking may be due to the regulating effect of embodied emotions on implicit emotions induced by emotional stimuli.
Highlights
Creative thinking refers to the cognitive ability of an individual to create and develop new, valuable things
The results showed that the main effects of measurement time [F(1, 45) = 0.028, p = 0.868] and facial expression [F(2, 45) = 2.038, p = 0.142] for implicit positive affect (IPA) were not significant, but the interaction effect between measurement time and facial expression was significant [F(2, 45) = 3.675, p = 0.033, ηp2 = 0.140]
The study showed that the embodied negative emotion activated by facial expression has a significant regulating effect on the implicit negative emotion activated by video stimulation
Summary
Creative thinking refers to the cognitive ability of an individual to create and develop new, valuable things. Originality, flexibility, and elaboration act as supportive roles in accelerating the creative thinking cognition process (Runco and Acar, 2012). The existence of a close relationship between emotions and creative thinking has been reported widely, there is no clear consensus on how these connections exist in the cognitive process. Studies have reported that individuals with positive emotions activated positive information connections and cognitive flexibility to enhance the fluency, originality, and insight; but individuals’ negative emotions had negative impact on the creative thinking process (Isen et al, 1986; FernándezAbascal and Díaz, 2013; Mastria et al, 2019). Some studies supported that negative emotions can stimulate an individual’s exploration of the real environment to improve the creative thinking process (Damian and Robins, 2012; Eastwood et al, 2012; Van Tilburg and Igou, 2012). Some studies supported that negative emotions can stimulate an individual’s exploration of the real environment to improve the creative thinking process (Damian and Robins, 2012; Eastwood et al, 2012; Van Tilburg and Igou, 2012). Baas et al (2013) proposed the dual pathway to creativity model, where approachrelated traits such as positive affectivity and power motivation can accelerate creativity, as they enhance cognitive flexibility, but avoidance-related traits such as negative affectivity under the right circumstances do increase creativity, as they enhance cognitive persistence
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