Uncovering interactive effects of affective voice tone and personality diversity on dyadic creativity

Creativity is a key driver of innovation and social progress. Research on creativity has identified a variety of factors that affect creativity at both individual and group levels. However, the interactive effects of these factors in creativity has not been fully investigated. Thus, the present study aimed to uncover the interactive effects on affective voice tone and personality characteristics on dyadic creativity. Pairs of participants took part in an experiment in which they cooperated on a verbal creativity task via a video conferencing system that modulated affective voice tone and completed personality questionnaires. The results showed that affective voice tone modulation, regardless of its valence polarity (i.e., happy or sad), significantly suppressed the beneficial effects of personality heterogeneity on dyadic creativity. The suggests that vocal expression of emotions in brainstorming, particularly in dyads with diverse personalities, can present opportunities for refining collaborative creative performance. This is the first empirical evidence for an interactive effect of affective voice tone and personality heterogeneity on dyadic creativity in a brainstorming-type situation. In addition, evidence from intervention studies such as this one may provide new insights for mechanisms/systems to promote co-creation both between humans and between humans and artificial intelligence agents.