Distance Increases Creativity

In an article published yesterday by Scientific American, researchers suggest that removing yourself both spatially and temporally from a problem can increase creative solutions. Better yet, you can save the money on the plane ticket or gas because simply imagining the distance will suffice. Psychological distance, according to the construal level theory (CLT), refers to "anything that we do not experience as occurring now, here, and to ourselves" and it is possible to induce this state by taking "another person's perspective, or by thinking of the question as if it were unreal and unlikely."

In studies conducted, researchers showed that informing participants of the location where a task was developed had a significant affect on their performance of that task. When asked to think up as many different modes of transportation as possible in a given amount of time, the participants that were told that the task was developed at a distant university "generated more numerous and original modes of transportation than participants in the near condition." Previous studies have shown that distancing time instead of location produced similar results. In general, a task that is perceived as being further away in time and space will yield more unique solutions than if it is perceived as being closer.

The authors of the article explain that:
This research has important practical implications. It suggests that there are several simple steps we can all take to increase creativity, such as traveling to faraway places (or even just thinking about such places), thinking about the distant future, communicating with people who are dissimilar to us, and considering unlikely alternatives to reality. Perhaps the modern environment, with its increased access to people, sights, music, and food from faraway places, helps us become more creative not only by exposing us to a variety of styles and ideas, but also by allowing us to think more abstractly. So the next time you’re stuck on a problem that seems impossible don’t give up. Instead, try to gain a little psychological distance, and pretend the problem came from somewhere very far away.