People who walk around while thinking instead of sitting in one place might help their brain generate more creative ideas, says behaviour science

For some people, sitting quietly and staring at a screen is not the best way to solve a problem. They get up, start walking around and somehow the idea they were struggling to find begins to take shape. New research around behaviour science and thinking now suggests there may be some science behind this common habit, particularly when the task involves coming up with fresh and unusual ideas.

A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis published in PLOS One found that walking can have a large effect on divergent thinking, which is the ability to come up with several possible ideas or solutions. The researchers analysed 23 studies involving 1,036 participants and found moderate-certainty evidence that walking improved this type of creative thinking.

Walking may help the brain think of more possibilities

The latest research, led by Alex Thabane and colleagues, looked at studies that compared walking with other conditions and examined different forms of creative thinking.


The researchers found a large effect for divergent thinking, with an effect size of 0.93. When the analysis was limited to randomized studies, the effect remained large at 0.82. In simple terms, the findings suggest that walking can make it easier to generate new and useful ideas rather than simply sitting and trying to force an answer.

However, there is an important difference. The study did not find the same benefit for convergent thinking, which is the kind of thinking used when there is one correct or best answer to a problem. The evidence for this part was also described as very uncertain.

So, walking may be more useful when you are brainstorming than when you are trying to finish a maths problem with one exact answer.

The idea is not entirely new

The findings also build on earlier research from Stanford University. In a 2014 study by Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, researchers conducted four experiments involving 176 college students and other adults.

Participants completed creativity tests while sitting or walking, both indoors and outdoors. In one experiment, people walking on a treadmill produced around 60% more creative responses than when they were sitting.

The researchers also found that the effect did not simply come from being outside. Walking indoors on a treadmill, even while facing a blank wall, also improved creative output. The boost could continue for a short time after people sat down again.

“Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking. We finally may be taking a step, or two, toward discovering why,” Oppezzo and Schwartz wrote in their study.

Walking is not a magic trick for every problem

The research does not mean that every work meeting or difficult task should be turned into a walking session.

Earlier experiments found that walking helped with divergent thinking, but people did not necessarily perform better on tasks requiring focused, single-answer thinking. The 2026 review reached a similar overall conclusion, finding a benefit for divergent thinking but not for convergent thinking.

That distinction is probably the most useful part of the research. If someone is trying to think of a headline, solve a creative problem, plan a project or simply find a different way of looking at something, getting up and walking for a while may be worth trying.

It does not have to be a long walk either. A short break away from the desk can give the mind some room to wander, which is often when unrelated thoughts start connecting in ways they did not while staring at the same screen.