Anxiety Can Come Up With More Creative Ideas, Researchers Say

Illustration of anxiety (Freepic)

JAKARTA - A study published in The Journal of Creative Behavior reveals a relationship between anxiety and creativity and how the two affect each other.

As reported by the Hindustan Times, this study involved 647 participants to examine the impact of anxiety on creativity.

The participants were divided into two groups based on their level of anxiety. They were then asked to come up with ideas on how to quickly obtain large amounts of money in real financial situations. In addition, they were also asked to imagine how the first date would go.

One group is tasked with thinking of ways to get dating going well, while the rest of the group is asked to imagine a scenario that could cause dating to end badly.

The researchers analyzed the number of ideas proposed and assessed the extent to which the ideas were creative and unique.

The study found individuals experiencing anxiety tended to produce more ideas, especially in negative scenarios.

However, their ideas tend to be repetitive and less original. In contrast, participants with lower levels of anxiety produced fewer ideas, but their ideas were more innovative and unique.

While working on a financial-related task, participants come up with fewer ideas than when doing assignments about a first date.

Ideas in financial duties are judged based on practicality, orientation on purpose, and morality, which show creativity in this context is more problem-solving than just imagination.

Dating and financial tasks are designed to compare two different types of creativity, namely hypothetical creativity and practical creativity. In hypothetical situations such as dating assignments, anxious individuals generate a lot of ideas, even though they are repeated.

Meanwhile, in more practical financial tasks, they produce fewer ideas, but focus more on practicality and moral responsibility.

This study concluded that anxiety can stimulate the emergence of many ideas, but originality is more developed in positive emotional conditions. Meanwhile, a positive mindset is considered crucial in creating fresh and innovative ideas because it allows thinking to become wider and more flexible.