The evidence is clear: What we do is good for you.
As reported in Psychology Today magazine, a new white paper proves what most improvisers have known all along. This stuff is good for you.
This study is a great addition to Peter Felsman's which showed that "improv experience promotes divergent thinking, uncertainty tolerance, and affective well-being." We especially love his statement that "co-creativity and unpredictability distinguish improv from other social interactions."
Yet another white paper proves the undeniable importance of improvisation in the workplace. This time, specifically dealing with the rapid pace of digitalization and how it forces new ventures to cope with external changes they cannot foresee. Improvisation is a crucial way for companies to respond effectively to sudden changes.
Check out the abstracts below.
Soft skills that actually stick.
A longitudinal study proves what we do works — with measurable improvement that holds long after the workshop ends.
Read the full study
Abstract: Improv to Improve: The Impact of Improvisational Theater on Creativity, Acceptance, and Psychological Well-Being.
As published in the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health and written by Diana Schwenken, Maja Dshemuchadse, Lisa Rasehorn, Dominik Klarhölter & Stefan Scherbaum.
Improvisational theatre (improv) is a form of theatre where dialogue, characters, and story are created spontaneously by its actors on stage.
In the last years, different improv techniques have gained increasing popularity and spread into fields beyond comedy and performing art, e.g., business organizations and educational programs. However, the beneficial impact of improv on psychological variables has barely been investigated.
In this study, we aim to fill this gap and contribute to a scientific investigation of improvisational theatre on various variables that measure creativity, acceptance, and psychological well-being. In a controlled trial, 30 participants in the intervention group and 28 in the waiting control group completed six different tests and questionnaires prior and post to a 6-week improv intervention or waiting time, respectively.
We found significant improvement in participants’ creativity and psychological well-being due to the intervention but no evidence for enhanced acceptance.
Abstract: Improv Experience Promotes Divergent Thinking, Uncertainty Tolerance, and Affective Well-Being.
As published on ScienceDirect.com and written by Peter Felsman, Sanuri Gunawardenac, and Colleen M. Seifert.
Background: Training in improvisational theatre is a widely available, popular and entertaining activity. It also is linked to a variety of psychological benefits, such as reductions in anxiety and depression in adult psychiatric patients (Krueger et al., 2017) and in social anxiety among adolescent public-school students (Felsman et al., 2019). However, research on its benefits has generally lacked the rigour of randomized experiments.
Aims: This paper follows an experimental method from previous research linking improvisation training to improvements in divergent thinking in the laboratory (Lewis & Lovatt, 2013), and includes an additional dependent variable, uncertainty tolerance, which has been broadly implicated in anxiety and depression (McEvoy & Mahoney, 2012).
Method: In two experiments (n = 74, n = 131), participants completed measures of divergent thinking, uncertainty tolerance, and affective well-being before and after engaging in 20 min of improv exercises or a matched control condition including social interactions.
Results: This paper replicates the prior finding that improvisational theatre training can improve divergent thinking (e.g., Lewis & Lovatt, 2013; Sowden et al., 2015), and provides new findings that improv can boost positive affect and increase uncertainty tolerance relative to other social interactions.
Conclusions: As a means to enhance psychological health, improvisational theatre training offers benefits without the negative stigma and difficulties in access surrounding other therapeutic interventions. These results support its popular use beyond the theatre to improve social and personal interactions in a variety of settings.
Abstract: Learning from Improvisation in New Ventures.
As published on ScienceDirect.com and written by Juan Wu, Felix Arndt, Hongjia Ma, Paul Hughes, and Sisi Tang.
The rapid pace of digitalization forces new ventures to cope with external changes they cannot foresee. Improvisation is a crucial way for companies to respond effectively to sudden changes. However, the mechanisms underlying the improvisation–performance link are not fully understood. This paper focuses on how improvisation affects a firm's performance.
We identify two mediators for this relationship: entrepreneurial learning and routines. Our sample includes 243 new ventures in China. The results of structural equation modeling show that learning from improvisation in start-ups contributes to establishing new routines that serve as drivers of firm performance. We discuss the implications for practice and future research.
Abstract: Improving Physiology with Improv
As published on Research Gate, A growing body of research suggests that improvisational theatre can have a positive impact on individuals’ well-being by promoting emotional expression, social connection and personal insight.
Similarly, exposure to humour has been shown to confer some benefits to mental and physical health. Most studies have focused on passive exposure to humour or the induction of laughter. Improvisational comedy, which involves active group participation in humour creation, offers a unique opportunity to combine some of the therapeutic elements of both improvisational theatre and humour.
Twenty-eight adults participated in a weekly improv comedy course delivered via Zoom and had their physiology and emotional states monitored. Participants wore Oura rings designed to measure physiological states continuously starting two weeks before the onset of improv classes to establish a baseline and throughout the six-week duration of the course. Emotional states were measured using self-report questionnaires.
The study utilized a single-group design, so comparisons were within-subject. Participants self-reported increased feelings of creativity, connectedness, energy and empowerment after each class and a decrease in feeling tired and lonely. Oura rings’ data showed improvement in sleep quality and physical activity levels. Improvements in sleep quality were greater for older adults.
