Sweet ideas: How the sensory experience of sweetness impacts creativity*

The importance of creativity to organizations is significant, ergo, scholars have begun to investigate how sensory elements in the workplace might impact creative performance. Our research examines effects of the sensory experience of taste, specifically sweetness, on creativity. Using a range of real taste tests and imagination tasks, we demonstrate that sweet taste facilitates creative performance. We argue that this is because sweet taste, as a positive implicit affective cue, increases cognitive flexibility and creativity independent of the elicitation of positive emotions. However, when the positive associations of sweet taste are externally overridden, such as when health risks are made salient, the positive impact of sweet taste on creativity is attenuated. We further demonstrate that sensory experience of sweetness increases performance on related tasks that require cognitive flexibility, but does not increase performance on non-creative tasks.

Automated summary

This study explores the impact of sensory elements in the workplace on creativity and finds that the sensory experience of sweetness can enhance creative performance. The positive implicit affective cue from sweet taste increases cognitive flexibility and creativity independently of positive emotions. However, when the positive associations of sweetness are overridden by external factors, such as health risks, the positive effect on creativity diminishes. Furthermore, the sensory experience of sweetness improves performance on related tasks that require cognitive flexibility, but does not affect performance on non-creative tasks.