title: The role of instrumental emotion regulation in the emotions-creativity link: how worries render individuals with high neuroticism more creative.
abstract: Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation (Tamir, 2005), the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to the emotions-creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotions such as worry (vs. happy) are trait-consistent experiences for individuals higher on trait neuroticism and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In 3 studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome (vs. happy) event, individuals higher in neuroticism came up with more creative design (Study 2) and more flexible uses of a brick (Study 3) when the task was a cognitively demanding one. Further, Study 3 offers preliminary support that increased intrinsic task enjoyment and motivation mediates the relationship between trait-consistent emotion regulation and creative performance. These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.
authors.forename: Angela K-Y
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University.
authors.forename: Shyhnan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liou
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology, Nanyang Technological University.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University.
authors.forename: Letty Y-Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.affiliation: Division of Strategy, Management, and Organization, Nanyang Technological University.
authors.forename: Chi-Yue
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.
authors.forename: Jose C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Yong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003405:Creativity; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D000075384:Neuroticism; D057181:Pleasure; D013624:Taiwan