This study examined the influence of the color green on creativity. Grounded in a robust analysis of the linguistic and cultural meanings of the color green, the hypothesis of the study was that “perceiving green prior to a creativity task fosters creative performance.” A series of four experiments was conducted to test this hypothesis. These experiments were conducted via the internet as well as in person in Germany, and included almost 200 adult participants in total.
Each experiment randomly assigned participants to one of two between-subjects conditions—the green condition, or the other color condition (different tests used different colors; white, grey, blue, etc.). Participants were informed that they would take part in several different studies. First, participants were presented with a black study number placed in a rectangle in the middle of a screen. While each of the four experiments differed in some specific ways, the essential format was to briefly show a color, green or otherwise, without any reference to the study having a color or creativity focus. Then the participants were to complete a two minute creativity task, and then complete a brief questionnaire.
The four experiments “demonstrated that a brief glimpse of green prior to engaging in a creativity task facilitates the creativity (but not overall amount) of response output.” These results can be related to inquiry on the effects of time in nature on creativity and other cognitive processes. A number of studies have demonstrated that viewing nature or pictures of nature yields benefits for task engagement, emotional experience, and productivity. These studies often use live plants or images of green trees and vegetation as the representation of nature. Perhaps there is something in particular about the color green found so readily in many (but not all) natural areas that contributes to part of the beneficial effect of time in nature on creativity and other cognitive processes.
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