Forget actually buying a Mac to unleash your creativity. A new study from researchers at Duke University and the University of Waterloo found that merely thinking about Apple can make you more creative -- at least with bricks.
After researchers flashed the company's logo in front of test subjects for an imperceptible 30 milliseconds, they discovered that people actually started behaving in ways associated with Apple's brand image, thinking differently, and apparently, more creatively.
During their study, researchers used both the Apple and IBM logos to see how people would react to the brands subconsciously. In the end, they concluded that brands resonated in pretty much that same way except in two specific areas: creativity and competence (IBM's strong suit). When asked to describe as many uses for a brick as they could, the Apple subjects averaged 30 percent more brick ideas than their IBM counterparts, according to researchers. An independent set of reviewers also deemed these ideas to be more creative.
IBM-primed subjects, one the other hand, all had strikingly similar answers. While one of the Duke professors involved in the study hesitates to directly link creativity to the use of Apple products, he does conclude that powerful brands can and do affect people's unconscious behavior.
The study will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
[Via today's WSJ Print Edition]
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