The power of visual art: Higher felt inspiration following aesthetically pleasing visual prompts in a creative writing task

Anecdotal reports indicate that visual art might be particularly potent in inducing moments of “creative inspiration” – a state that can be described as externally evoked motivation for creative activity (Thrash & Elliot 2004). In two behavioral experiments we tested the hypothesis that visual aesthetic experiences can increase self-reported creative inspiration by presenting ‘aesthetic’ and ‘non-aesthetic’ visual stimuli as prompts in a...