A positive mood allows you to think more creatively

Ever wondered why some people like to watch funny videos at work? Well, they may be putting themselves in a good mood so they can think more creatively.

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"Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking," says Ruby Nadler, a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario.

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For this study, Nadler and her colleagues Rahel Rabi and John Paul Minda looked at a particular kind of learning that is improved by creative thinking.

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Students who took part in the study were put into different moods and then given a category learning task to do (they learned to classify sets of pictures with visually complex patterns).

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The researchers manipulated mood with help from music clips and video clips; first, they tried several out to find out what made people happiest and saddest.

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The happiest music was a peppy Mozart piece, and the happiest video was of a laughing baby. The researchers then used these in the experiment, along with sad music and video (a piece of music from Schindler's List and a news report about an earthquake) and a piece of music and a video that didn't affect mood.

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After listening to the music and watching the video, people had to try to learn to recognize a pattern.

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Happy volunteers were better at learning a rule to classify the patterns than sad or neutral volunteers.

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"If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that," Nadler says.

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And music is an easy way to get into a good mood. Everyone has a different type of music that works for them ufffddon't feel like you have to switch to Mozart, she says.