Dimming the Light Offers A Creative Lens: The Impact of Ambient Illuminance on Creativity Assessment

Creative ideas are prevalent in everyday consumption. The creative professionals always hope that consumers could understand and acknowledge the creativity displayed in their work. But is it always the case? In other words, can consumers usually get the “Aha!” moment when viewing a creative work? Unfortunately, creativity is only in the eye of the beholder. As consumers are not directly involved in the creation process, oftentimes they cannot share the perspectives of the creators and appreciate their creativity (West, Kover, & Caruana, 2008). This has raised a fundamental yet important question: How to make consumers assess creativity in a more effective way? Creative assessment is the attempt to identify or recognize creative characteristics in the assessment target (Hennessey & Amabile, 1999). While existing research has suggested some solutions such as inviting consumers into the creation process (Kover, et al., 1997), it usually requires vast investment in labor and finance. Given that contextual variables are usually inexpensive and easy to control, if researchers can start to identify ambient factors that impact consumers’ creativity assessment, it would offer valuable insights into how to help consumers appreciate innovation, and ultimately enhance their product desirability and purchase intention (Horn & Salvendy, 2009). The current research aims to address this void by being the first work to identify ambient illuminance as a contextual variable to influence consumers’ creative assessment.