Emotion-Related Traits Moderate the Impact of Emotional State on Creative Performances

The present study shows that the impact of emotional states on creativity depends on individual emotional characteristics as well as the type of task used. The results found during the last 30 years diverge concerning relationships between emotion and creative cognition. For this reason, we conducted a study to explore whether the impact of emotional states on creative potential is moderated by individuals’ emotional traits. Using a multivariate approach, we measured (1) emotional valence and arousal level of participants after an emotional induction, (2) emotional traits (e.g., alexithymia, emotional expressivity, affective intensity, emotional idiosyncrasy), and (3) quantity, originality, and valence of generated ideas in two distinct divergent thinking tasks. Participants were 107 undergraduate university students. Regression analyses confirm our hypothesis showing that the impact of emotional states on creative performance is not uniform, but depends on participants’ emotional state and emotion-related traits. For example, we observed that the more individuals had difficulty with emotional information and the higher their level of arousal, the less they generated pleasant ideas. Several processes such as arousal regulation may explain the observed results.