The effects of promotion and prevention cues on creativity

This study tested whether cues associated with promotion and prevention reg ulatory foci influence creativity. The authors predicted that the "risky," explorative processing style elicited by promotion cues, relative to the ri sk-averse, perseverant processing style elicited by prevention cues, would facilitate creative thought. These predictions were supported by two experi ments in which promotion cues bolstered both creative insight (Experiment 1 ) and creative generation (Experiment 2) relative to prevention cues. Exper iments 3 and 4 provided evidence for the process account of these findings, suggesting that promotion cues, relative to prevention cues, produce a ris kier response bias (Experiment 3) and bolster memory search for novel respo nses (Experiment 4). A final experiment provided evidence that individual d ifferences in regulatory focus influence creative problem solving in a mann er analogous to that of incidental promotion and prevention cues.