Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152.
This research focuses on the relationship between walking and creativity. After conducting four experiments, the researchers reached a conclusion that walking can boost creativity.
In Experiment 1, the participants’ (N = 48) creativity level, measured by Guilford’s Alternate Uses (GAU) test, were compared between sitting and walking on a treadmill. Walking turned out to increase their creativity by 81%.
In Experiment 2 (N = 48), the participants were asked to complete the GAU three times in three different conditions (sit-tread; sit-sit; tread-sit). Again, walking appeared to increase creativity level, while sitting did not have any effect. Also, this experiment showed that the increase was not due to the practice effect.
In Experiment 3, the study was generalized to the outdoor environment in order to examine the practical reach of their findings. Instead of walking on the treadmill, the participants (N = 40) were asked to walk along a predetermined path through a university campus. And the same positive effect of walking was shown.
In Experiment 4, in order to test whether the effect was due to physically walking itself or just moving through the outdoor environment, participants (N = 40) were randomly assigned to one of the following conditions: sitting inside, walking on a treadmill inside, sitting in a moving wheelchair outside, and walking outside. And the method of creativity measurement was changed to creative analogy generation. The experiment indicated that physically walking had a strong positive effect on creativity whether indoors or outdoors.
Overall, this research suggested that walking can truly open up a pathway to higher creativity. It might be a simple while useful tool to boost creativity in everyday life.