The Influence Of Awe Distraction Task On Unconscious Thought To Solve Creative Problems

Creative problem solving plays an important role in the progress of science and technology and the development of human society.Many great scientists and artists often talk about a phenomenon.When they were struggling to solve the problem,they put it aside and did other unrelated things(such as mountain climbing,walking,etc.),and suddenly came up with a solution to the problem.Researchers such as Dijksterhuis believe that when completing unrelated tasks,although conscious thought engages in other unrelated activities,individuals still solve problems at the unconscious level.Research has shown that compared to conscious thought,unconscious thought performs better in solving creative problems.However,some scholars have not repeated this effect and have questioned research on unconscious thought.In response to doubts,some researchers have explored the factors that affect the unconscious thought effect.Research has shown that variables such as distraction task,information processing mode,and motivation can all affect unconscious thought effect.In addition,emotions can also affect the unconscious thought effect.However,current research only examines the impact of emotional valence on unconscious thought.As a cognitive emotion with special functions,awe is believed to be related to creativity.Many studies have found that activating awe can promote conscious thought to solve creative problems.So,whether awe promote unconscious thought to solve creative problems?This study used Alternative Use Task(Experiment 1 and Experiment 3)and Remote Association Task(Experiment 2)as creative tasks.Activate various emotions of participants by allowing them to watch awe,pleasure,or neutral videos during the distraction task stage.The experimental results showed that compared with the neutral unconscious thought group and the conscious thought group,the participants in the awe unconscious thought group scored higher in novelty and fluency in the Alternative Use Task of brick(Experiment 1)and the Alternative Use Task of brick of paper clip(Experiment 3);And the implicit accessibility of the answers to the Remote Association Task is higher(Experiment 2).In addition,the study also found that compared to neutral emotions,pleasure did not promote the unconscious thought effect(Experiment 3),ruling out the possibility of the positive emotional valence of awe promoting the unconscious effect.The research results indicate that awe promotes unconscious thought in solving creative problems.