Creative people enjoy idle time more than others

Date:
July 6, 2023
Source:
University of Arizona
Summary:
For those with creative minds, screen-free downtime can be fruitful
and entertaining: Creative people use their idle time by letting
one idea lead to another.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Creative people are more likely to make the most of their downtime
during a typical day by exploring their mind, a new study by University
of Arizona researchers suggests.

The study, published in the Creativity Research Journal, finds that
creative people are more likely to fruitfully use idle time by letting one
idea lead to another. Study participants who were more creative felt less
bored when they sat alone in a room, researchers found. And during the
COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the world experienced unusually extended
periods of unstructured time, creative people were less bored and more
engaged with their thoughts.

"I am particularly interested in creativity because we wanted to know
what's going on in the mind of creative individuals, especially in
situations where nothing constrains their thoughts," said lead study
author Quentin Raffaeli, a graduate student in the UArizona Department
of Psychology.

In psychology and neuroscience, most studies on human thoughts either
prompt participants to think in a certain way or ask them to report
on thoughts they experienced, but less is known about how thoughts
naturally arise and unfold over time in unprompted contexts, said Jessica Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology
and senior author of the paper.

"This is where our study comes in," Andrews-Hanna said.

History is filled with anecdotes of famous scientists, artists and
philosophers who enjoyed being alone with their thoughts, and those
people often generated some of their best ideas during idle time,
Andrews-Hanna said.

"In today's busy and digitally connected society, time to be alone with
one's thoughts without distraction may be becoming a rare commodity,"
she added.

The researchers divided the study into two parts. For the first
experiment, the researchers asked each participant to sit alone in a room
for 10 minutes without any access to digital devices. In the absence
of any particular prompt, the participants were asked to voice their
thoughts aloud in real time. The recorded files from 81 participants
were then transcribed and analyzed.

The researchers assessed the participants' creativity through a
"divergent thinking test," a lab-based verbal test that measures a
person's ability to think outside of the box. Participants who performed
well in the divergent thinking test had thoughts that flowed freely and
were associated with one another, often indicated by phrases such as
"this reminds me of" or "speaking of which." "While many participants
had a tendency to jump between seemingly unrelated thoughts, creative individuals showed signs of thinking more associatively," Raffaeli said.

The first experiment also found that creative people were more engaged
in their thoughts when they were left alone without distractions, such
as cell phone and internet.

"Creative people rated themselves as being less bored, even over those
10 minutes. They also spoke more words overall, which indicated that
their thoughts were more likely to move freely," Andrews-Hanna said.

To complement their initial findings, the researchers extended their
study in the context of a much larger span of time -- the COVID-19
pandemic -when many people were alone with their thoughts more often.

For the second experiment, over 2,600 adults answered questions through
a smartphone app called Mind Window, developed by Andrews-Hanna and her graduate student Eric Andrews. Participants who self-identified as being creative reported being less bored during the pandemic.

"As we become more overworked, overscheduled and addicted to our digital devices, I think we need to do a better job in our homes, our workplaces
and our schools to cultivate time to simply relax with our thoughts," Andrews-Hanna said.

The researchers are continuing this line of work using their Mind
Window app.

They encourage people to download and use the app to help scientists
understand how people across the world think in their everyday lives.

"Understanding why different people think the way they do may lead to
promising interventions to improve health and well-being," Andrews-Hanna
said.

* RELATED_TOPICS
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University_of_Arizona. Original written by Niranjana Rajalakshmi. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Quentin Raffaelli, Rudy Malusa, Nadia-Anais de Stefano, Eric
Andrews,
Matthew D. Grilli, Caitlin Mills, Darya L. Zabelina, Jessica
R. Andrews- Hanna. Creative Minds at Rest: Creative Individuals are
More Associative and Engaged with Their Idle Thoughts. Creativity
Research Journal, 2023; 1 DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2023.2227477 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230706124528.htm

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