Creativity: Boost It With Blue

Image via Wikipedia

Can the colors you’re exposed to make you more productive or more creative? It’s an idea that may sound a little flaky — that is, unless you’re familiar with how the human brain responds to various priming effects. You see a beautiful woman, you may become more aggressive and impulsive (if you’re a man, that is). You see a smiley face, your attitude may stay more positive (and the reverse with a frowny face). You see a big-ass, scary spider, you may become more risk averse (or want to have sex).

So, maybe it’s not so flaky. At least that’s what a recent paper in Science found. Here’s a write up from the New York Times:

[R]esearchers at the University of British Columbia conducted tests with 600 people to determine whether cognitive performance varied when people saw red or blue. Participants performed tasks with words or images displayed against red, blue or neutral backgrounds on computer screens. Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.

Jonah Lehrer connects this study to a piece he wrote for the New Yorker last year about the science of insight (HTML here, PDF here) — basically, that we are better at coming to creativity and insight once our brains are in a relaxed state. Blue is certainly connected with relaxation in our minds (oceans, the sky, etc.). Red is connected with danger (stop signs, various poisonous things in nature, etc.).

There’s also been research on the effects of indoor plants on productivity, hospital stays, mood, etc.

So, while it may not make all the difference in the world, if you had a choice, you might do your creative tasks in a space with lots of blue (or, create a space with lots of blue where you work). Sitting in a red room, meanwhile, sounds pretty overstimulating — but it might make you more productive.

Of course, thinking about these effects might mess things up (“I’m in a blue room, why can’t I create!?”). So build them into your routine and then forget about them.

HT: The Frontal Cortex