Do you think innovation and creativity are important for conflict resolution? Interested in a novel way to increase those states? I'm not kidding about this method for becoming more innovative, but I want you to kid. Or, at least, think like a kid. Because thinking like a kid can make you more creative. That's what these researchers say, and, like me, they are not kidding.
Abstract from "Child’s Play: Facilitating the Originality of Creative Output by a Priming Manipulation" (Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts):
When children play, they often do so in very original ways. However, with the responsibilities of adulthood, this playful curiosity is sometimes lost and conventional responses often result. In the present study, 76 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions before creative performance was assessed in a version of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT; E. P. Torrance, 1974). In a control condition, participants wrote about what they would do if school was cancelled for the day. In an experimental condition, the instructions were identical except that participants were to imagine themselves as 7-year-olds in this situation. Individuals imagining themselves as children subsequently produced more original responses on the TTCT. Further results showed that the manipulation was particularly effective among more introverted individuals, who are typically less spontaneous and more inhibited in their daily lives. The results thus establish that there is a benefit in thinking like a child to subsequent creative originality, particularly among introverted individuals. The discussion links the findings to mindset factors, play and spontaneity, and relevant personality processes.
Excerpt:
The benefits of adulthood include lower levels of impulsivity (Rothbart & Bates, 2006), greater cognitive control (Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2005), and greater abilities to apply oneself to the important domains of love and work, conventionally defined (McCrae & Costa, 1991). However, such developments in maturity may not come without a cost. Specifically, adulthood levels of maturity often co-occurs with processing tendencies and behaviors that are more rule bound, more routine, and often less flexible and creative (Davis, 1999; James, 1890). Thus, the very same maturational processes may both facilitate goal-directed efforts and undermine cognitive flexibility and originality (Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow, 2004; Taylor & Getzels, 1975).
Click to read the rest of "Child’s Play: Facilitating the Originality of Creative Output by a Priming Manipulation."
Click to read more about the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (The Daily Beast).
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