The impact of physical activity intervention on creativity: Role of flexibility vs persistence pathways

• Acute physical activity improves the ideational originality and cognitive flexibility. • Acute physical activity does not lead to deterioration of persistence in divergent thinking . • Flexibility does not mediate the relationship between type of activity and originality. • Persistence does not mediate the relationship between type of activity and originality. • The results support the concept of embodied cognition . Since creativity is at the root of innovation, researchers have shown immense interest in understanding what stimulates creativity and accordingly design interventions to enhance the human creative potential. Extending the literature on this subject, this study employs the Dual Pathway to Creativity model to examine the impact of physical activity on flexibility and persistence pathways in the creative process, using a between subjects randomized controlled trial experiment. The study measures the originality, flexibility, and persistence elements of divergent thinking before and after 15 min of dance vis-à-vis a regular class activity using Guilford Alternative Uses Task and Latent Semantics Analysis. The results show that compared to a regular class activity, physical activity improves originality and flexibility components of divergent thinking but does not lead to deterioration of persistence as much as a regular class activity. Further, the flexibility and persistence pathways do not mediate the relationship between physical activity and originality. The results have implications for the ego-depletion theory and dual pathway to creativity model, which are discussed in the study.