The Effects of Integral and Incidental Anger and Anxiety on Creative Processes

Abstract

Contemporary studies show mixed effects of negative emotions, such as anger, on creative performance. However, prior research has focused on creativity in general or idea generation, rather than considering the broader range of creative processes. Few discrete emotions beyond anger have been explored with respect to creativity, and emotions are commonly incidental rather than integral to the creative task. This study focuses on the effects of two different negative emotions, anger and anxiety, when they are either integral or incidental to a creative work task. Additionally, this research examines the effects of engaging in different types of creative processes on subsequent emotional states, an issue that has not been previously explored. Utilizing two separate studies, this research investigated the effects of integral and incidental anger and anxiety on dimensions of two creative processes, idea generation and idea evaluation. Results indicate that integral relative to incidental emotion result in greater flexibility, or conceptual shifts of categories in ideas generated, and emotion (state anger or state anxiety) and the type of emotion induced (integral or incidental) interacted such that integral anger resulted in the most flexibility and incidental anger resulted in the least. Furthermore, emotion and type of emotion induced interacted to influence fluency, or the number of ideas generated, such that integral anger resulted in the largest number of idea generated, whereas integral anxiety resulted in the least. Finally, incidental anxiety performed better than integral anxiety and overall incidental emotion performed better than overall integral emotion on flexibility of idea evaluation. Implications and future directions are discussed.