Using Immersive Technology to Understand the Effect of Emotional Shift on Creativity

ABSTRACT This study examined how emotional shifts elicited by virtual environments (VEs) affect individuals' creativity. With the growing use of VEs in educational and interactive settings, understanding their emotional impact on creativity is timely and critical, particularly from a developmental perspective, as emotion regulation and creative potential undergo changes across developmental stages. Studying both adults and children may help identify sensitive periods for fostering creativity through emotional engagement. Adults ( N = 106) and children aged seven to nine ( N = 121) participated in an online study. Each participant experienced two VEs: a “neutral” control environment and one of two “emotional” environments designed to elicit distinct emotional states. After each VE, participants reported their emotional states and completed a standard creative thinking task. Emotional shifts between the two VEs were analyzed to assess their effects on the subsequent creative thinking task. Results revealed that both adults and children reacted in similar emotional directions to the relevant “emotional” environments. Furthermore, decreases in valence were associated with increases in originality across both age groups. These findings highlight the nuanced, and somewhat counterintuitive role of negative emotional shifts in fostering creative thinking and suggest that such mechanisms may operate similarly in both children and adults.