The dynamic influence of emotions on game-based creativity: An integrated analysis of emotional valence, activation strength, and regulation focus

Emotion has been identified as an important predictor of creativity, but little attention has been put on investigating how emotion, especially that considers regulation focus, may dynamically influence male and female students' creativity in game-based situations. To explore the dynamic relationship between various types of emotions and creativity during game playing, 266 college students were included and the Creativity Game-based Evaluation System (CGES) was developed in this study. Four types of emotions integrating perspectives of valence (positive vs. negative), activation (high vs. low), and regulatory focus (prevention vs. promotion) were investigated in this study: the positive-low activation-prevention emotion (P-L-Pre) (calm and relaxed), the positive-high activation-promotion emotion (P-H-Pro) (happy and elated), the negative-high activation-prevention emotion (N-H-Pre) (nervous and anxious), and the negative-high activation-promotion emotion (N-H-Pro) (frustrated and angry). The results revealed that, although there was a slight gender difference in game-based creativity, the prediction patterns of emotions in game-based creativity were very similar among participants with different genders. Specifically, emotions during game playing can better predict creativity than those of the baseline; moreover, the P-H-Pro emotion can facilitate performance on creativity, whereas the N-H-Pro emotion can decrease creativity performance. Thus, providing appropriate challenges to induce highly-activated and promotion-focused positive emotions are critical for the success of games designed to improve creativity.