Drinking coffee is a universal habit; but also a habit with misconceptions.

Coffee is often viewed as a stimulant for innovation and imagination.

Current research suggests several benefits of caffeine.

Like most readers, I start my day with a tall cup of coffee (or three). My mind awakens, and I’m ready to tackle several projects: writing a new book chapter, crafting a commissioned article, or outlining the initial drafts of this blog. I’m on full alert, I’m stimulated, and I’m engaged. My fingers fly across the keyboard, caffeine is surging through my system, and it’s “full steam ahead!”

But wait a minute! Has my creativity, has your creativity, been enhanced to any significant degree by that jolt of java?

What the Research Says:

For most people, a cup of coffee is a daily ritual (current figures show that people around the world drink a staggering 140,625,000 gallons of coffee globally each day). It is not only a ritual; it is a habit. As a habit, we often consider it a necessary part of the creative process, a sensory trigger for generating dynamic ideas or innovative products. We know that brewing, smelling, and tasting coffee, quite often, increases our mental alertness by blocking adenosine (a natural body chemical, one that increases during the day, often leading to sleepiness) receptors in the brain. As a result, coffee sustains our attention, improves our reaction time, and stimulates our working memory.

Although it has been proven to elevate our mood and reduce mental fatigue, coffee’s effect on our creative inclinations is a little more complicated.

A study out of the University of Arkansas involved 88 adults, some of whom were given 200 mg of caffeine, others a placebo. The participants were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: one focused on convergent thinking and problem-solving tasks, and the other on divergent thinking and idea-generation tasks. The researchers noted that caffeine enhanced convergent, problem-solving abilities. That is, participants were able to solve more set tasks after caffeine than after a placebo. In contrast, they also noted that caffeine did not (emphasis mine) significantly influence divergent thinking or the ability to create novel ideas or innovative concepts. They concluded that caffeine seems to help with convergent problem-solving (the search for single correct answers). However, it had little to no impact on divergent, out-of-the-ordinary, or innovative ideas. In short, it affects one type of creative thinking, but not another.

A 2020 report in Science Daily summarized the preceding research, noting that “caffeine increases the ability to focus and problem solve, but it doesn’t stimulate creativity. In addition to the results on creativity, caffeine did not significantly affect working memory, but test subjects who took it did report being less sad.”

An additional review of the University of Arkansas research in Sci News noted, “Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychotropic drug in the world, with numerous studies documenting the effects of caffeine on people’s alertness, vigilance, mood, concentration, and attentional focus.” Also included was this quote, “While the cognitive benefits of caffeine – increased alertness, improved vigilance, enhanced focus and improved motor performance—are well established, the stimulant’s effect on creativity is less known.” Suffice it to say, our coffee habit has some conjectured benefits, others more scientific.

While additional research is warranted to validate the unique relationship between creativity and coffee, the following can be inferred from the currently available data.

Drinking coffee to increase or stimulate our divergent creativity— generating novel or original ideas—may not be as effective as current beliefs suggest.

Coffee does seem to have a positive influence on our desire to solve convergent thinking problems by organizing, selecting, refining, tightening, and improving ideas. It is less effective in sparking original ideas.

Coffee is positively correlated with an elevated mood and reducing mental fatigue. This may be linked to higher levels of cognitive flexibility, thus indirectly supporting some level of creative expression.

Caffeine has been shown to improve our working memory, reaction time, and attention—all necessary elements of the thinking process and intellectual production.

There is evidence to suggest that too many cups of coffee can amplify our anxiety levels, reduce our cognitive flexibility, and limit our attentional focus—all factors associated with the generation of innovative ideas.

Our daily ritual of brewing a pot of coffee, experiencing its aroma, and tasting its savory bitterness may be a “creativity generator”—an emotional stimulant signaling a time to enter at least one phase of the creative process.

Bottom line: Keep up the coffee habit, but there’s a little more work necessary to reach your full creative potential.

Zabelina, D. L., & Silvia, P. J. (2020). Percolating ideas: The effects of caffeine on creative thinking and problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, 79, 102899.

Fredericks, Anthony D. Two Minute Habits: Small Habits, Dynamic Creativity.

University of Arkansas. (March 5, 2020). Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates. ScienceDaily.

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