Influence of the actability of real objects and risks associated with operation on subjective evaluation of creative works and creative thinking

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate the impact and nature of the actability of tangible objects on creative thinking. We investigated how the ability to interact with physical objects influences creativity evaluation and the creative utilization of these objects through experimentation. Our hypothesis posits that the degree of actability affects the creative use of objects and the evaluation of created works. The experiment involved three conditions of actability: (1) tangible objects within reach without obstructions, (2) tangible objects out of reach without obstructions, and (3) tangible objects within reach but obstructed by a case. We compared the impression evaluations when participants viewed images of the same objects to those under the aforementioned conditions. Additionally, we administered an idea generation task and compared the number of ideas generated across conditions. The results demonstrated that the condition with tangible objects within reach without obstructions yielded a higher number of ideas and better evaluations compared to the other conditions. These findings suggest that actability influences creative thinking and provides insights into the presentation methods of artworks in contexts such as exhibitions.