Attractive Things Work Better

Can't remember where I found it, but have been reading a sample chapter of a Don Norman book called "Emotional Design". Most of the chapter called Attractive Things Work Better is interesting, if relatively obvious background stuff. I was, however, enchanted to read the following:

"The psychologist 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 had just been givena small gift..."

That's me handing out lollipops at the next meeting or training session I host!