Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis
He WJ, Wong WC, Hui AN
Frontiers in psychology · 21 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- University or hospital
- Hong Kong Institute of Education
- University or hospital
- Education University of Hong Kong
Based on 2 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2017-09-26 · Front Psychol · vol. 8 · p. 1680
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media
- Cited
- 55 citations · more than 88% of similar papers · 2.2× the field average
- References
- 71 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Diverse Music Education Insights
- Keywords
- Psychology, Arousal, Valence (chemistry), Creativity, Active listening, Mood, Affect (linguistics), Low arousal theory, Cognitive psychology, Music and emotion, Cognition, Music psychology, Developmental psychology, Social psychology, Music education, Communication, Music history, Chemistry
3 authors
From HK
- Wu‐jing He · correspondingEducation University of Hong Kong
- Wan‐chi WongChinese University of Hong Kong
- Anna N. N. HuiCity University of Hong Kong
Abstract
This study examined the effect of music listening on creative thinking through the lens of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which posits that emotional reactions (i.e., arousal and valence) mediate the effect of music listening on cognitive functioning. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: a positive music group (n = 198), a negative music group (n = 195), and a control group (n = 191). Creative thinking and emotional reactions were assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production and the Affect Grid, respectively. The results showed that both positively and negatively arousing music enhanced creative thinking. The results further revealed that arousal, regardless of valence, significantly mediated the music-creativity relationship. This study enriches the research on the arousal-and-mood hypothesis by (1) providing direct empirical testing on the mediating roles of emotional reactions; (2) including both positively and negatively arousing music in the study design; and (3) identifying that only arousal, and not valence, was a significant mediator in the music-creativity link.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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