The impact of nature on creativity – A study among Danish creative professionals

This article investigates the ability of natural environments to enhance creativity. Seventeen qualitative interviews were performed with Danish creative professionals of different age, sex and profession about their creativity, their relation to nature as well as their experience of nature's ability to stimulate their creativity. Findings from this study show that nature does indeed have the capacity to enhance creativity. This study explains how nature has the ability to evoke the creative way of thinking by making us more curious, able to get new ideas as well as flexible in our way of thinking. Nature also helps us to recharge our directed-attention which is needed when analysing and further developing ideas. Nature especially plays a role in the two first phases of a creative process, the Preparation phase and the Incubation phase. Natural environments which offer the perceived sensory dimensions ‘Nature’, ‘Space’ and ‘Serene’ seem to be of particular importance for the creative professionals. The results suggest that it is fruitful to provide access to natural environments of different kinds in order to support creative processes.