Study: Walking Increases Creativity

Deborah Netburn reports that, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, walking helps boost creativity.

The study, "Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking" by Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, finds that walkers are more talkative than sitters, and "the increase in creative ideas generated when walking is not due simply to an increase of ideas in general."

Netburn's report details the method of the study, which also found evidence of the prolonged creative results produced by walking: "In subsequent experiments, the researchers found that the effect of walking on creativity can linger for a period of time. People who took the creativity test while walking, and then while sitting, showed a continued creative boost during the sitting portion of the test."