The placebo group showed a trend for higher fluency in the AUT (right) and no such difference in the CFG (left).

<p>Scatterplots of fluency scores of the placebo (orange) and control (blue) groups. Y axis is fluency scores, ranked from lowest to highest. X axis is group ranking (in the AUT since number of participants in the placebo group was smaller by 3, matching is from the highest score onwards). Insets show mean fluency in each group, error bars are standard error of the mean. † p value < 0.06.</p

The placebo group displayed higher “out-of-the-boxness” (OB) than the control group in the CFG.

<p>Main plot is a scatterplot of OB scores of the placebo (orange) and control (blue) groups. Y axis is the fraction of shapes outside standard categories, ranked from lowest to highest. X axis is group ranking. Inset shows mean OB in each group, error bars are standard error of the mean. ** p value < 0.01.</p

The placebo group showed significantly higher originality in both the CFG (left) and AUT (right).

<p>Scatterplots of originality scores of the placebo (orange) and control (blue) groups. Y axis is originality scores, ranked from lowest to highest. X axis is group ranking (in the AUT since number of participants in the placebo group was smaller by 3, matching is from the highest score onwards). Insets show mean originality in each group, error bars are standard error of the mean. * p value < 0.05.</p

Performance of the placebo and control groups in the three creativity tests.

<p>Performance of the placebo and control groups in the three creativity tests.</p

Creative foraging game (CFG).

<p>a: CFG interface. Left: starting point; right: example of a shape. b: Exploration phases are followed by exploitation phases in which participants usually find shapes with shared perceptual meaning. Purple: numbers; green: airplanes. Data for fig 1b is from one of the participants from Ref [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0182466#pone.0182466.ref043" target="_blank">43</a>].</p