Want To Boost Creativity?
Video games that promote creativity and freedom can increase creativity under certain conditions, according to new research by Iowa State University. The study tested the effects of playing Minecraft in a manner that included or without instruction, with watching a television show or playing the race car game. People who were free to play Minecraft without instruction were the most creative.
"It's not only that Minecraft can stimulate creativity. Douglas Gentile, a psychologist and professor of psychology, said that there may be something in selecting the best way to approach it that is also important.
If you're unfamiliar with the game, Gentile says Minecraft is an online Lego world. The game has sold more than 100 million copies, allows players to explore different worlds and create whatever they can think of. Participants in the study randomly assigned to play Minecraft were divided into two groups. The instructions were given to the person who was playing Minecraft.
After 40 minutes of watching or playing games The participants of the competition completed several creative tasks. To gauge their creativity, they were asked to draw a character from a different world from Earth. More human-like creatures scored low for creativity and those less human-like got high scores. Surprisingly, the ones who were told to be creative while playing Minecraft were the least creative.
Gentile states that there is no clear reason to explain this phenomenon. In the article published by Creativity Research Journal, he Jorge Blanco Herrera, lead author and former master's student in psychology; and Jeffrey Rokkum, former Ph.D. student in psychology, identified possible reasons why the taught Minecraft group scored lower. Blanco-Herrera says the instructions may have changed subjects' motivation for play.
"Being instructed to be creative may have limited their options while playing, resulting in a less creative experience," Blanco-Herrera said. "It's possible that they used up all their 'creative juices' while playing and were unable to come up with anything when it was time to take the test."
Games help to develop creativity similar to aggression
Video games can have both negative and positive effects. Lalalalal has shown the amount, content and game's context can affect what players learn through repeated exposures. While much of Gentile's work has focused on aggression or prosocial behavior, he says the same holds applicable to creativity.
Most video games encourage players to exercise a certain amount of creativity. Role-playing games allow players to create characters and stories or reward them for their innovative strategies in games that are competitive. The researchers suggest that even first-person shooter games can possibly inspire creativity as players think about strategies and seek out advantages in combat.
"The research is beginning to paint a more nuanced , intriguing picture. Gentile stated that although gaming research has demonstrated that you are more adept at what you do, it is also more important to the way you do it.