Coffee has long been the fuel for creatives. Back before it became the remote workplace for the laptopped bourgeoisie, the coffee shop was (and still is) the place folks went to write, draw, argue philosophy, play chess, and do just about anything where a healthy dose of creativity is required. Coffee, it was generally thought, provided the boost in outside-the-box thinking, so if you were planning on a day of intense ideating, why not do it at a place where the literal creative juices were seemingly endless?
Well as it turns out, a new study shows this centuries old line of thinking to be completely wrong; coffee doesnโt in fact make you more creative. If this bums you out, donโt worry. The same study also states that coffee can boost your mood.
Appearing in the March edition of the journal Consciousness and Cognition, Percolating Ideas: The Effects of Caffeine on Creative Thinking and Problem Solving is the work of Darya Zabelina and Paul J. Silvia, assistant professors of psychology at the University of Arkansas and the University of North Carolina Greensboro, respectively. For the study, Zabelina and Silvia wanted to break down caffeineโs affect on โconvergentโ and โdivergentโ thinking. Per a press release, convergent thinking can be better understood as โseeking a specific solution to a problem,โ in particular problem solving and focus. Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is described as โidea generation where a large set of apt, novel or interesting responses would be suitable.โ
To test caffeineโs effect on these modes of thought, Zabelina and Silvia gave 88 volunteers either a 200mg caffeine pill (equivalent to a 12oz cup of coffee) or a placebo. The volunteers were then โtested on standard measures of convergent and divergent thinking, working memory, and mood.โ They found that while caffeine had no effect on divergent thinking or working memory, it had significantly enhanced problem solving/convergent thinking and test subjects who received caffeine reported feeling โless sad,โ which is probably the saddest way to say โhappier.โ
Zabelina did note that caffeine also had no negative impact on creative thinking, โso keep drinking your coffee; it wonโt interfere with these abilities.โ
So sorry, next great American novelist, coffee unfortunately wonโt make you come up with the next Absalom, Absalom!, youโre going to have to rely on your own mental horsepower to get you there. The good news is though, once youโve got that ideaโperhaps a Southern Gothic tale of a creativeโs journey to feeling less sadโa healthy dose of coffee will help you get that pen to paper.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.
Top image ยฉ Adobe Stock/David Gilder