TAKE A CREATIVE STROLL

Looking for inspiration? Take a hike. A new study has concluded that people generate more creative ideas while walking than while sitting. In one experiment, a group of 48 Stanford undergrads were asked to come up with alternative uses for common items like buttons. They were first tested while sitting at a desk, then on a treadmill while walking at an easy pace. Eighty-one percent of the subjects improved their creative output—defined as generating appropriate and original ideas—while on the move. What’s more, a variation in the test found that the benefits of walking lingered on, as participants came up with significantly more and subjectively better ideas when they took the creativity test post-walk than they did pre-walk. Moving the experiment outside had no discernible impact. “It really seems that it’s the walking that matters,” study author Marily Oppezzo of Santa Clara University tells The New York Times. “I think it’s possible that walking may allow the brain to break through” some of its hyperrational filters.