May 14, 2009

Blue Makes You More Creative

Hence my template.

β€œIt may be nothing more than an association with big skies and the open seas, but beholding the colour blue makes you more creative. Juliet Zhu at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, compared the effects of red and blue on people's behaviour. While red tended to sharpen the memories of her undergraduate volunteers, blue helped to unlock their imaginations. For example, when they were given toy parts in either blue or red, the toys that the volunteers constructed in blue were rated as much more creative than those made with red.”
-- New Scientist May 6, 2009. Subscription required for full article.

UPDATE:

For those who don't subscribe to New Scientist, here are the eight ways "to have brilliant ideas," as the cover puts it:

1. Embrace your inner grouch [i.e., dissatisfaction breeds innovation]
2, Let your mind wander
3. Play the piano [or other ambidextrous activities, to encourage communication between both sides of your brain. I'm ambidextrous]
4. Colour your world blue
5. Two's creative company [i.e., collaborate with others]
6. Live abroad [i.e., necessity of adapting to another culture stimulates problem-solving thought and flexibility]
7. Be more playful [see "wild and outrageous"]
8. Raise a glass [Their little joke. "Drinking alcohol does not make you more creative, it just makes you feel that you are."]

In ther words, New Scientist is trying to act like Psychology Today.

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