실내운동심상과 창의성의 부적 관계: 운동심상이 창의성에 미치는 부작용에 관하여

Abstract

This research examines whether motor imagery—simply imagining specific body movements—can be substituted for physical exercise influencing on creativity. Prior research in neural, sports, and medical science has documented that motor imagery has surprisingly beneficial effects related to physical and psychological outcomes. Our research reveals a negative effect of motor imagery: imagining indoor exercise hampers creativity. Our results show that an indoor-motor-imagery group demonstrated decreased creativity compared with the baseline group (Experiment 1). We subsequently replicated this pattern using actual physical exercise (Experiment 2). The explanation is that indoor motor imagery (focusing on concrete body movements within a circumscribed space) orients people toward low-level, confined thinking and hampers high-level, unbounded thinking. Thus, the difference between the indoor-motor-imagery and the baseline groups on creativity was observed only under a high-level construal and not under a low-level construal (Experiment 3). People should be aware of a side effect of indoor motor imagery (i.e., creativity diminishment) when they intend to use motor imagery for physical health or other benefits.