an evolutionary leftover from our animal origins. Most thought of emotions as a problem to be overcome by rational, logical thinking. And most of the research focused upon negative emotional such as stress, fear, anxiety, and anger. Modern work has completely reversed this view. Science now knows that evolutionarily more advanced animals are more emotional than primitive ones, the human being the most emotional of all. Moreover, emotions play a critical role in our daily lives, helping assess situations as good or bad, safe or dangerous. Emotions aid in decision-making. Positive emotions are as important as negative ones- positive emotions are critical to learning, curiosity, and creative thought, and today research is turning toward this dimension. One

finding particularly was particularly intriguing. The scientist Alice Isen and her colleagues have shown that being happy broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking. Isen discovered that when people were asked to solve difficult problems, ones that required unusual “out of the box” thinking, they did much better when they just had been given a small gift- not much of a gift, but enough to make them feel good. When you feel good, Isen discovered, you are better at brainstorming, at examining multiple alternatives. And it doesn’t take much to make people feel good. All Isen had to do was ask people to watch a few minutes of a comedy film or receive a small bag of candy.

We have long known that when people get anxious they tend to narrow their thought tly relevant to a problem. This is a useful strategy in escaping from danger, but not in thinking of imaginative new approaches to a problem. Isen’s results show that when people are relaxed and happy, their thought processes expand, becoming more creative, more imaginative. These and related findings suggest the role of aesthetics in product design: Attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does this make something easier to use. Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter. With most products, if the first thing you try fails to produce the desired results, the most natural response is to try