Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, led by Madeleine Gross and Jonathan Schooler, randomly assigned participants to watch different videos. One group saw an artistic animated short from a film curation site; the control group saw a rapid compilation of humorous home videos and animal clips.
After viewing, participants did two tasks. The first measured categorization: people rated how well items fit categories. Accepting unusual items, like a camel for an odd category, indicated conceptual expansion — a broader way of grouping ideas. The second task measured creative production: participants wrote a short story that had to include the words "stamp", "letter" and "send", and independent judges scored stories for originality.
The artistic-film group performed better on both measures of creativity. They also reported feeling worse and rated the films lower, yet a temporary shift called "state openness" fully explained the link between watching art and broader conceptual thinking. The artistic films were selected from Short of the Week and tended to be experimental or ambiguous.
Difficult words
- categorization — Process of putting things into groups
- conceptual expansion — Wider way of grouping ideas than usual
- creative production — Making new ideas or products, like stories
- originality — Quality of being new and different
- state openness — Temporary mental change that increases openness
- curation — Act of selecting and organizing items
- ambiguous — Not clear; open to more than one meaning
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Discussion questions
- Have you ever felt more creative after watching a film or other art? Why or why not?
- Which type of video would you prefer before doing a creative task — an artistic film or funny home clips — and why?
- The artistic-film group reported feeling worse but still thought more broadly. Why might feeling worse lead to different thinking?
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