Playing to boost Creativity

Mercier and Lubart share that “Games are powerful educational tools, and several early studies have shown the potential of video games and role-playing games to improve creativity. . . . the first study [Marcier and Lubart conducted] showed that the frequency of playing board games was positively correlated with several components of creative potential: divergent thinking, openness to experiences, creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity. . . . the second study demonstrated that playing creative games—requiring the generation of creative ideas—had a beneficial effect on participants’ originality, compared to playing noncreative games and a control condition. This result was observed independently of the participants’ baseline creative potential. . . . This beneficial effect, obtained after 30 minutes of play, could be used to temporarily improve creative performance, in education or in business.”

Maxence Mercier and Todd Lubart.  “Board Games Enhance Creativity:  Evidence from Two Studies.”  Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000547