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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 16, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

More creative through positive mood? Not everyone!

S Akbari Chermahini¹, Bernhard Hommel

¹Institute for Psychological Research and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|November 29, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Positive mood boosts creativity only in individuals with lower dopamine levels, challenging the common assumption. Dopamine

Keywords:

creativity divergent thinking dopamine emotion eye blink rate

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology

Background:

Positive mood is often assumed to enhance human creativity.
Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is hypothesized to mediate this mood-creativity link.
The relationship between dopamine and creative flexibility may be non-linear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if tonic dopamine levels modulate the effect of positive mood on divergent creativity.
To examine the role of dopamine in the association between mood and creativity.

Main Methods:

Assessed mood, divergent thinking (Alternate Uses Task), and eye blink rates (EBRs) in adults.
Induced positive or negative moods.
Used EBRs as a clinical marker for individual dopamine levels.

Main Results:

The association between creative flexibility and EBR followed an inverted U-shape.
Positive mood induction increased EBRs.
Only individuals with below-median EBRs (lower dopamine) showed improved creativity after positive mood induction.

Conclusions:

Dopamine levels influence how mood affects divergent creativity.
The positive impact of mood on creativity is not universal and depends on individual dopamine levels.
Findings support dopamine-based theories of mood and creativity, challenging general assumptions.