Igniting interest in insight

Abstract In generating novel ideas during the creative process of insight, what ignites positive emotions like “Aha” experiences of interest? This study explored this by validating the biological plausibility of a mathematical model predicting emotions when shifting perspectives to recognize alternate information regarding an event. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we assessed brain activity as participants watched card magic videos with experimentally varied ease of information recognition. Results indicated that when shifting from certain to uncertain belief-based recognition, subjective interest arises if the new recognition is distant from the prior certain belief but close to the subsequent uncertain belief, accompanied by brain activations related to positive emotions. These suggest that interest emerges when deviating from conventional ideas towards unexpected yet easily comprehensible new ones, providing strategic insights for ideation.