In 2019 marketing professors Kelly Herd (University of Connecticut) and Ravi Mehta (University of Illinois) published a study of the emotional impact of creativity. More than 200 participants in the research were given the task of inventing a new flavour of potato chips that would appeal exclusively to pregnant mothers. Half the group was assigned a task in an objective way, defined by the assignment. The remaining participants were told to imagine for a few minutes what the customer's feelings would be when tasting a new product.
The amateur "product designers" came up with very different ideas and names, but the most creative (according to the opinions of the evaluation panel of expectant mothers) were "Pickles-and-Ice Cream", "Sushi Chips"; and "Margarita for Mother". These ideas came from the second group, the one with the task of considering initially how the consumer would feel when tasting the product. It was fascinating to see how crucial empathy is for creativity. This is a psychological area yet to be clearly analysed and understood in the field of trade and marketing.
Separate experiments provide consistent results
Entitled "Head versus heart: the effect of mental images based on objective and subjective feelings on the creativity of new products", the study focused in total on five separate experiments in which groups of participants had to design a children's toy, select ingredients for new children's cereals or design a new shopping cart for seniors. Each time, the group instructed prior to the task to imagine the feelings of the target consumers was the one that created the most original products.
The evaluators were experts in the given fields: for example, toys were judged by adults who work with children in the appropriate age group. None of the evaluators knew about the differences in the terms of reference for the teams and were simply asked to use their knowledge to determine which proposals were the most creative. The findings were consistent across the experiments.
Emotional connection leads to cognitive flexibility
Researchers believe an initial focus on the feelings of others creates "cognitive flexibility" - the ability simultaneously to assess problems from different perspectives. This "shift in the direction of thought" in the perception and processing of information is a benefit for creativity. At the same time, it was essential in the experiments to assess not only the degree of creativity of the ideas, but also their feasibility.
The recommendation to focus on the consumer's emotions before starting a creative project offers its developers a cheap and easy way to encourage the generation of ideas.
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