  This paper discusses in layperson's terms human and computational studies of
the impact of threat and fear on exploration and creativity. A first study
showed that both killifish from a lake with predators and from a lake without
predators explore a new environment to the same degree and plotting number of
new spaces covered over time generates a hump-shaped curve. However, for the
fish from the lake with predators the curve is shifted to the right; they take
longer. This pattern was replicated by a computer model of exploratory behavior
varying only one parameter, the fear parameter. A second study showed that
stories inspired by threatening photographs were rated as more creative than
stories inspired by non-threatening photographs. Various explanations for the
findings are discussed.
