We aim to extend the body of research on boredom as a potentially creativity-enhancing state. Therefore, 124 students were assigned to one of five 6-minute interventions (boredom-discomfort, boredom-equanimity, boredom-continuation, joy, and concentration) and the effects on figural as well as verbal fluency and diversity as measures of creativity were examined. It was verified whether the emotional state changed during the intervention. In addition, the emotional dimensions, valence, arousal, and alertness were controlled before and after the test. Boredom-discomfort, joy, and concentration altered the emotion experienced during the intervention in the intended way. The boredom-equanimity and boredom-continuation groups served as control conditions for various boredom states, and less boredom resulted for subjects in these groups. Figural and verbal measures of creativity were differently influenced by the interventions. For verbal fluency, we obtained a significant interaction between time and group, in particular, the performance differed between the intervention with either concentration, or joy. Verbal creativity decreased after intervention in all groups, most for joy and boredom-discomfort groups and least for concentration. In contrast, figural performance increased in four groups, most for boredom-discomfort but not for concentration. Subsequent analyses revealed significant interaction effects between time and group with respect to both verbal and figural measures of creativity. The interventions had not only short-term effects on subjects' emotions but also, in some cases, a significant longer-term impact on emotion dimensions at the end of the study. After discussing methodological aspects, conclusions are drawn for further research approaches., {"references": ["Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context: update to the social psychology of creativity. Westview Press.", "Andreasen, N. C. (2005). The creating brain. Dana Press.", "Andreasen N. C. (2011). A journey into chaos: creativity and the unconscious. Mens sana monographs, 9(1), 42\u201353. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-1229.77424", "Baas, M., De Dreu, C. K. W., and Nijstad, B. (2008). A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: hedonic tone, activation or regulatory focus? Psychological Bulletin, 134(6), 779\u2013806. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012815", "Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W., Franklin, M. S., and Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological science, 23(10), 1117\u20131122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024", "Berger, H. (1929). \u00dcber das Elektrenkephalogramm des Menschen. Archiv f\u00fcr Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 87(1), 527-570.", "Bilali\u0107, M., and McLeod, P. (2014). Why good thoughts block better ones. Scientific American, 310(3), 74\u201379. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0314-74", "Bledow, R., Rosing, K., and Frese, M. (2013). A dynamic perspective on affect and creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 432\u2013450. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0894", "Bowden E. M., and Jung-Beeman, M. (2003). Aha! Insight experience correlates with solution activation in the right hemisphere. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(3), 730\u2013737. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196539", "Brewer, D., Doughtie, E. B., and Lubin, B. (1980). Induction of mood and mood shift. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36(1), 215\u2013226. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(198001)36:13.0.co;2-6", "Byron, K., and Khazanchi, S. (2011). A meta-analytic investigation of the relationship of state and trait anxiety to performance on figural and verbal creative tasks. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(2), 269\u2013283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210392788", "Chermahini, S. A., and Hommel, B. (2012). Creative mood swings: divergent and convergent thinking affect mood in opposite ways. Psychological Research, 76, 634\u2013640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-011-0358-z", "Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203771587", "Conner, T. S., and Silvia, P. J. (2015). Creative days: A daily diary study of emotion, personality, and everyday creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 9(4), 463\u2013470. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000022", "Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2010). Das Flow-Erlebnis: Jenseits von Angst und Langeweile: im Tun aufgehen. Klett-Cotta.", "Davis, M. A. (2009). Understanding the relationship between mood and creativity: A meta-analysis. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 108(1), 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.04.001", "De Bono, E. (1992). Laterales Denken. ECON.", "Dijksterhuis, A., and Meurs, T. (2006). Where creativity resides: the generative power of unconscious thought. Consciousness and cognition, 15(1), 135\u2013146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2005.04.007", "Doehlemann, M. (1991). Langeweile? Deutung eines verbreiteten Ph\u00e4nomens. Suhrkamp.", "D\u00fcker, H., Lienert, G.A., Lukesch, H., and Mayrhofer, S. (2001). KLT-R. Konzentrations-Leistungs-Test (revidierte Fassung). Hogrefe. https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/konzentrations-leistungs-test-revidierte-fassung-klt-r", "Eastwood, J.D., and Gorelik, D. (2019). Boredom Is a Feeling of Thinking and a Double-Edged Sword. In J. Ros Velasco (Ed.), Boredom Is in Your Mind (pp. 55-70). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26395-9_4", "Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A. G., and Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior research methods, 39(2), 175\u2013191. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146", "Fink, A., Grabner, R. H., Benedek, M., and Neubauer, A. C. (2006). Divergent thinking training is related to frontal electroencephalogram alpha synchronization. European Journal of Neuroscience, 23(8), 2241-2246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04751.x", "Fink, A., Benedek, M., Grabner, R. H., Staudt, B., and Neubauer, A. C. (2007). Creativity meets neuroscience: Experimental tasks for the neuroscientific study of creative thinking. Methods, 42(1), 68-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2006.12.001", "Fink, A., and Benedek, M. (2014). EEG alpha power and creative ideation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 44, 111\u2013123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.12.002", "Fink, A., Graif, B., and Neubauer, A. C. (2009). Brain correlates underlying creative thinking: EEG alpha activity in professional vs. novice dancers. NeuroImage, 46(3), 854-862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.02.036", "Fink, A., Schwab, D., and Papousek, I. (2011). Sensitivity of EEG upper alpha activity to cognitive and affective creativity interventions. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 82, 233\u2013239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.09.003", "Flaherty, A. W. (2005). Frontotemporal and dopaminergic control of idea generation and creative drive. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 493(1), 147\u2013153. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20768", "Forgeard, M. J. C. (2011). Happy people thrive on adversity: Pre-existing mood moderates the effect of emotion inductions on creative thinking. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(8), 904\u2013909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.015", "Gasper, K., and Middlewood, B. L. (2014). Approaching novel thoughts: understanding why elation and boredom promote associative thought more than distress and relaxation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 50\u201357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.12.007", "Gilhooly, K. J., Georgiou, G., and Devery, U. (2013). Incubation and creativity: Do something different. Thinking & Reasoning, 19(2), 137\u2013149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2012.749812", "Gilman, T. L., Shaheen, R., Nylocks, K. M., Halachoff, D., Chapman, J., Flynn, J. J., Matt, L. M., and Coifman, K. G. (2017). A film set for the elicitation of emotion in research: A comprehensive catalog derived from four decades of investigation. Behavior research methods, 49(6), 2061\u20132082. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0842-x", "Glass, G. V., Peckham, P. D., and Sanders, J. R. (1972). Consequences of failure to meet assumptions underlying the fixed effects analyses of variance and Covariance. Review of Educational Research, 42(3), 237\u2013288. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543042003", "Glaveanu, V. P., Hanchett Hanson, M., Baer, J., Barbot, B., Clapp, E. P., Corazza, G. E., Hennessey, B., Kaufman, J. C., Lebuda, I., Lubart, T., Montuori, A., Ness, I. J., Plucker, J., Reiter\u2010Palmon, R., Sierra, Z., Simonton, D. K., Neves\u2010Pereira, M. S., and Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Advancing creativity theory and research: A socio-cultural manifesto. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(3), 741\u2013745. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.395", "Goetz, T., Frenzel, A. C., Hall, N. C., Nett, U. E., Pekrun, R., and Lipnevich, A. A. (2014). Types of boredom: An experience sampling approach. Motivation and Emotion, 38(3), 401\u2013419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-013-9385-y", "Gross, J. J., and Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 87\u2013108. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939508408966", "Guilford, J. P. (1950). Creativity. American Psychologist, 5(9), 444\u2013454. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0063487", "Guilford, J. P. (1967). Creativity: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.1967.tb00002.x", "Haager, J. S., Kuhbandner, C., and Pekrun, R. (2018). To be bored or not to be bored \u2013 how task\u2010related boredom influences creative performance. Journal of Creative Behavior, 52(4), 297\u2013304. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.154", "Hunter, J. (2015). The Inspiration of boredom: an investigation of the relationship between boredom and creativity [Unpublished master thesis] York University, Canada. http://hdl.handle.net/10315/30697", "Holland, J. L. (1985). The Self-Directed-Search. Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.", "Horn, A., Ostwald, D., Reisert, M., and Blankenburg, F. (2014). The structural-functional connectome and the default mode network of the human brain. NeuroImage, 102 Pt 1, 142\u2013151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.09.069", "Israel, L., Paukner, P., Schiestel, L., Diepold, K., and Sch\u00f6nbrodt, F. (2021). The OpenLAV video database for affect induction: Analyzing the uniformity of video stimuli effects [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5043", "Ivcevic, Z., and Hoffmann, J. (2017). Emotions and creativity: From states to traits and emotion abilities. In G. J. Feist, R. Reiter-Palmon and J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of creativity and personality research (pp. 187\u2013213). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316228036.011", "J\u00e4ger, A. O., S\u00fc\u00df, H.-M., and Beauducel, A. (1997). Berliner Intelligenzstruktur-Test. BIS-test, Form 4. Hogrefe. https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/berliner-intelligenzstruktur-test-form-4-bis-4", "Janke, W., and Weyers, P. (2008). Positive Emotionen. In W. Janke, M. Schmidt-Daffy and G. Debus (Eds.), Experimentelle Emotionspsychologie (pp. 225\u2013279). Lengerich Pabst.", "J\u00e4ncke, L. (2012). Funktionale links-rechts-Asymmetrien. In H. O. Karnath and P. Thier (Eds.), Kognitive Neurowissenschaften (pp. 693\u2013703). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25527-4_63", "Jaussi, K. S., Knights, A. R., and Gupta, A. (2017). Feeling good, being intentional, and their relationship to two types of creativity at work. Creativity Research Journal, 29(4), 377\u2013386. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2017.1376498", "Jaynes, J. (1990). The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Houghton Mifflin.", "Kim, K. H. (2011). The Creativity Crisis: The decrease in creative thinking scores on the torrance tests of creative thinking. Creativity Research Journal, 23(4), 285\u2013295. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2011.627805", "Kim, K.H., and Pierce, R.A. (2013). Convergent Versus Divergent Thinking. In E.G. Carayannis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. (pp. 245\u2013250). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3858-8_22", "Kast, V. (2003). Vom Interesse und dem Sinn der Langeweile. dtv.", "Klimesch, W., Sauseng, P., and Hanslmayr, S. (2007). EEG alpha oscillations: the inhibition-timing hypothesis. Brain research reviews, 53(1), 63\u201388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresrev.2006.06.003", "Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic explorations in art. International Universities Press.", "Laufs, H., Kleinschmidt, A., Beyerle, A., Eger, E., Salek-Haddadi, A., Preibisch, C., and Krakow, K. (2003). EEG-correlated fMRI of human alpha activity. NeuroImage, 19(4), 1463\u20131476. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00286-6", "Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. Oxford University Press.", "Lucas, B., and Spencer, E. (2017). Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing learners who generate ideas and can think critically. Crown House Publishing.", "Mann, S., and Cadman, R. (2014). Does being bored make us more creative? Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 165\u2013173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901073", "Markey, A., Chin, A., Vanepps, E. M., and Loewenstein, G. (2014). Identifying a reliable boredom induction. Perceptual and motor skills, 119(1), 237\u2013253. https://doi.org/10.2466/27.PMS.119c18z6", "Marope, M., Griffin, P., and Gallagher, C. (2018). Future competences and future of curriculum. A global reference for curricula transformation. IBE UNESCO. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/future_competences_and_the_future_of_curriculum.pdf", "Martindale, C. (1989). Personality, Situation, and Creativity. In J. A. Glover, R. R. Ronning and C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of Creativity. Perspectives on Individual Differences (pp. 211\u2013232). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5356-1_13", "Martindale, C., and Hasenfus, N. (1978). EEG differences as a function of creativity, stage of the creative process, and effort to be original. Biological Psychology, 6(3), 157\u2013167. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-0511(78)90018-2", "Martindale, C. (1995). Creativity and connectionism. In S. M. Smith, T. B. Ward and R. A. Finke (Eds.), The creative cognition approach (pp. 249\u2013268). The MIT Press.", "Mastria, S., Agnoli, S., and Corazza, G. E. (2019). How does emotion influence the creativity evaluation of exogenous alternative ideas? PLoS ONE, 14(7): e0219298. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219298", "Mednick, S. (1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 69(3), 220\u2013232. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048850", "Mendelsohn, G. A. (1976). Associative and attentional processes in creative performance. Journal of Personality, 44(2), 341\u2013369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1976.tb00127.x", "M\u00f6lle, M., Marshall, L., Wolf, B., Fehm, H. L., and Born, J. (1999). EEG complexity and performance measures of creative thinking. Psychophysiology, 36(1), 95-104. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048577299961619", "OECD (2017). PISA 2021 Creative Thinking Strategic Advisory Group Report. OECD. https://one.oecd.org/document/EDU/PISA/GB(2017)19/en/pdf", "OECD (2019). PISA 2021 Creative Thinking Framework Third Draft. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA-2021-creative-thinking-framework.pdf", "Portney, L.G., and Watkins, M.P. (1993). Foundations of clinical research: applications to practice. Appleton & Lange.", "Quindlen, A. (2002). Doing nothing is something. Newsweek, 139(19), 76.", "Richter, P., and Hacker, W. (2008). Belastung und Beanspruchung: Stress, Erm\u00fcdung und Burnout im Arbeitsleben (2. Auflage). Asanger Verlag.", "Ritter, S. M., and Dijksterhuis, A. (2014). Creativity \u2013 The unconscious foundations of the incubation period. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(25), 215. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00215", "Rottenberg, J., Ray, R. D., and Gross, J. J. (2007). Emotion elicitation using films. In J. A. Coan and J. J. B. Allen (Eds.), The handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment (pp. 9\u201328). Oxford University Press.", "Runco, M. A. (2017). Comments on where the creativity research has been and where is it going. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 51(4), 308\u2013313. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.189", "Runco, M. A., and Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92\u201396. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092", "Runco, M. A., and Sakamoto, S. O. (1999). Experimental studies of creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of Creativity (pp. 62\u201392). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807916", "Runco, M. A., Acar, S., and Cayirdag, N. (2017). A closer look at the creativity gap and why students are less creative at school than outside of school. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 24, 242\u2013249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.04.003", "Salkind, N. J. (Ed.). (2010). Encyclopedia of research design. SAGE. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288", "Samson, A. C., Kreibig, S. D., Soderstrom, B., Wade, A. A., and Gross J. J. (2016). Eliciting positive, negative and mixed emotional states: A film library for affective scientists. Cognition and Emotion, 30(5), 827\u2013856. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1031089", "Sauseng, P., Klimesch, W., Doppelmayr, M., Pecherstorfer, T., Freunberger, R., and Hanslmayr, S. (2005). EEG alpha synchronization and functional coupling during top-down processing in a working memory task. Human brain mapping, 26(2), 148\u2013155. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20150", "Schaefer, A., Nils, F., Sanchez, X., and Philippot, P. (2010). Assessing the effectiveness of a large database of emotion-eliciting films: A new tool for emotion researchers. Cognition & Emotion, 24(7), 1153\u20131172. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930903274322", "Schleicher, R. (2009). Emotionen und Peripherphysiologie. Emotionale Filmclips, kontinuierliche Selbstbewertung und peripherphysiologie inklusive okulomotorische Ver\u00e4nderungen. Pabst Science Publishers.", "Schuler, H., and G\u00f6rlich, Y. (2007). Kreativit\u00e4t: Ursachen, Messung, F\u00f6rderung und Umsetzung in Innovation. Hogrefe.", "Scott, G., Leritz, L. E., and Mumford, M. D. (2004). The effectiveness of creativity training: a quantitative review. Creativity Research Journal, 16(4), 361\u2013388. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1604_1", "Shofty, B., Gonen, T., Bergmann, E., Mayseless, N., Korn, A., Shamay-Tsoory, S., Grossman, R., Jalon, I., Kahn, I., and Ram, Z. (2022). The default network is causally linked to creative thinking. Molecular psychiatry, 27(3), 1848\u20131854. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01403-8", "Shrout, P. E., and Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86(2), 420\u2013428. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.86.2.420", "Smallwood, J., and Schooler, J. W. (2009). Mind-wandering. In T. Bayne, A. Cleermans and P. Wilken (Eds.), The Oxford Companion to Consciousness (pp. 443\u2013445). Oxford University Press.", "Smart, R. G. (1966). Subject selection bias in psychological research. Canadian Psychologist/Psychologie canadienne, 7a(2), 115\u2013121. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0083096", "Stein, M. I. (1953). Creativity and culture. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 36, 311\u2013322. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1953.9712897", "Sternberg. R. J. (2007). Creativity as a Habit. In A.-G. Tan (Ed.), Creativity: A Handbook for Teachers (pp. 3\u201325). World Scientific. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812770868_0001", "Sternberg, R.J., and Lubart, T.I. (1995). Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. Free Press.", "Stevens, C. E., Jr., and Zabelina, D. L. (2019). Creativity comes in waves: An EEG-focused exploration of the creative brain. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 27, 154\u2013162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.02.003", "Steyer, R., Schwenkmezger, P., Notz, P., and Eid, M. (1997). Der Mehrdimensionale. Befindlichkeitsfragebogen (MDBF). Handanweisung. Hogrefe. https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/mehrdimensionaler-befindlichkeitsfragebogen-mdbf", "S\u00fc\u00df, H. M., and Beauducel, A. (2015). Modeling the construct validity of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Model. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 32, 13-25. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-166X2015000100002", "Tomasino, D. (2007). The psValgeirsdottir, D., and Onarheim, B. (2017). Studying creativity training programs: A methodological analysis. Creativity and Innovation Management, 26, 430\u2013 439. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12245 ychophysiological basis of creativity and intuition: accessing 'the zone' of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 4(5), 528\u2013542. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJESB.2007.014388", "Williams, R., Runco, M. A., and Berlow, E. (2016). Mapping the themes, impact, and cohesion of creativity research over the last 25 years. Creativity Research Journal, 28(4), 385\u2013394. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2016.1230358", "Yang, H., Chattopadhyay, A., Zhang, K., and Dahl, D. W. (2012). Unconscious creativity: When can unconscious thought outperform conscious thought? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(4), 573\u2013581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2012.04.002", "Zei\u00dfig, A. (2018). The Creative Act as a Mode of Research: Ten Emotions \u2013 Ten Films. ed