Freedom from constraints: Darkness and dim illumination promote creativity
Freedom from constraints: Darkness and dim illumination promote creativity
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.05.003
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发表时间：
2013-09
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
A. Steidle;L. Werth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Steidle;L. Werth
员工的创造力是组织竞争力的关键。然而，工作空间和物理环境的潜在贡献没有得到充分考虑，因为到目前为止，物理环境的各个方面，特别是光线，如何支持创造力还不清楚。因此，在六个研究中，本研究探讨了光和黑暗对创造性表现的影响。我们希望黑暗能让人们摆脱束缚，形成一种全局性的探索性处理方式，从而促进创造力。首先，四项研究表明，无论是启动黑暗和实际昏暗的照明提高创造性的表现。启动研究表明，这种效应可能发生在人们的意识之外，并且与可见性的差异无关。第二，另外两项研究测试了潜在的机制，并表明黑暗会让人感觉不受约束，并引发一种冒险的探索性处理方式。正如预期的那样，感知自由的约束调解的影响，昏暗的照明创造力。第三，适度分析证明了效果的边界条件：当使用更非正式的间接光而不是直接光时，或者当评估想法而不是产生创造性想法时，与黑暗相关的创造力增加消失了。总之，这些结果有助于理解视觉氛围（即视觉信息），它们对照明效果的重要性，以及它们通过概念联系和注意力调节的影响。限制以及照明设计的实际意义进行了讨论。
Employee creativity is critical to organizational competitiveness. However, the potential contribution made by the workspace and the physical environment is not fully taken into account because, up to now, it has been rather unclear how aspects of the physical environment, especially light, can support creativity. Consequently, in six studies, the present research investigated the effect of light and darkness on creative performance. We expected that darkness would offer individuals freedom from constraints, enabling a global and explorative processing style, which in turn facilitates creativity. First, four studies demonstrated that both priming darkness and actual dim illumination improved creative performance. The priming studies revealed that the effect can occur outside of people's awareness and independent of differences in visibility. Second, two additional studies tested the underlying mechanism and showed that darkness elicits a feeling of being free from constraints and triggers a risky, explorative processing style. As expected, perceived freedom from constraints mediated the effect of dim illumination on creativity. Third, moderation analyses demonstrated the effects' boundary conditions: the darkness-related increase in creativity disappeared when using a more informal indirect light instead of direct light or when evaluating ideas instead of generating creative ideas. In sum, these results contribute to the understanding of visual atmospheres (i.e. visual messages), their importance for lighting effects, and their impact via conceptual links and attentional tuning. Limitations as well as practical implications for lighting design are discussed.