Creativity in Motion: How a Single Aerobic Exercise Session Affects Divergent Creative Thinking

Creativity, a key cognitive process for innovation, involves generating novel and valuable ideas. While aerobic exercise is linked to cognitive benefits, its effects on creative thinking remain unclear. Evidence suggests that both single and consecutive exercise sessions may enhance creative thinking, yet the optimal intensity and timing of exercise for benefiting creative thinking have not been fully explored. This study examined whether a 20 minute moderate-to-vigorous cycle session influences divergent creative thinking, and how timing of assessment affects performance. Fifty-one young adults completed Guilford's Alternate Uses Task (AUT) under three conditions: post-exercise, during exercise, or control (after watching an exercise video). AUT performance was measured by fluency (number of ideas), validity (practicality of ideas), flexibility (number of categories), and originality (creativity ratings on a 1-5 scale). No significant differences between the control and post-exercise groups were found. However, those assessed during exercise showed lower originality, fluency, and validity, likely due to dual-task interference. These findings suggest that a 20 minute aerobic session does not enhance creativity and may hinder it when assessed during exercise. The study highlights the need for further research to clarify how exercise intensity, duration, and timing impact creative thinking to optimize potential cognitive benefits.