What are simple ways to meaningfully boost creativity?

Remembering the big picture may matter: the simple act of articulating a purpose beyond ourselves might improve self regulation and performance. This paper explores the effect of a “prosocial, self-transcendent purpose” on 2,000 students’ learning behaviors and performance through four studies. The findings suggest that writing a purpose bigger than self-interested goals, such as, “I want to learn things that will help me make a positive impact on the world,” versus, “I want to expand my knowledge of the world,” has lasting effects.

Looking to the future may help in solving certain types of problems. Researchers set up tasks requiring different thinking styles. When participants were asked to imagine themselves doing this task a year from now, this facilitated insight discovery and generative thinking. Results suggest imagining yourself in the future helps with abstract thinking.

Encouraging people to generate their own ideas before evaluating others' ideas results in a greater number of better ideas and improves idea selection. Researchers began projects with either individual or team interactions. A “hybrid” model—where people first work alone and then work together—came out on top.

How we give feedback also contributes to the creative process. Researchers tested the affect, tone (e.g., positive or negative), formality, and perceived ownership of feedback in a task experiment. One combination outshone the others: feedback delivered in a positive, informal, and high-autonomy style delivered the best creative generation results.

Taking a lap may mean better ideas. Researchers found walking outside improved imaginative analogy production (less so on convergent thinking), resulting in analogies that had the best quality and novelty compared to other treatments (e.g., walking inside, sitting inside, or sitting outside).