The effects of boredom and reward on creativity

Despite numerous studies in the literature have consistently reported the problem of boredom in educational environments, recent studies investigating the impact of boredom on creativity have produced inconsistent outcomes. Moreover, these investigations do not make a statement about the intermediary mechanisms that play a role between boredom and creativity. Finally, the proven techniques for how to prevent boredom are not experimentally available in the literature. Three studies conducted in this thesis have tried to elucidate the effect of boredom on creativity. In the first research where a correlational study of relationship between boredom and creativity was conducted, it was found that there was a negative relationship between boredom and creativity. A part of the relationship between boredom and creativity stems from a reduction in the deep ideas. In the second research, the boredom was manipulated by a tedious task. The situation that was manipulated in this way was also described as boring by the participants. In addition, boredom reduced creativity. In conclusion, both correlative and empirical research has consistently shown that boredom reduces creativity. However, there was no mediating effect of deep thinking between creativity and boredom in the second study. This outcome may be due to the fact that the manipulation of boredom in the second research emerges as a stronger variable than boredom in the first study. In the third research, the effect of boredom and reward on the creativity was examined in a single research paradigm. In this research, it was revealed that the reward given after the boredom was the most effective technique to improve the creative performance. It is thought that the insignificant modification effect in this study is due to small sample size. In summary, this effect may arise from the synergistic effect of the reward and the compensation process.