Creativity can be trained.
Short answer: yes, and the evidence is stronger than most people expect. Here's what it shows, and where we're careful not to overclaim.
Guess the finding.
Four real results. Pick an answer for each, then see the study.
Walking instead of sitting boosted creative idea generation by about…
About 60% on average, and it lasted after people sat back down (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014).
How many creativity training studies did the big 2004 review pool?
70. Well-designed training produced substantial, measurable gains (Scott, Leritz & Mumford, 2004).
Stuck on a problem, what led to more original solutions?
The easy, mind-wandering task beat both (Baird et al., 2012). That's incubation.
Limits on time, money and specs…
Across 145 studies, limits helped up to a point, then held work back (Acar, Tarakci & van Knippenberg, 2019).
Training works.
A meta-analysis by Scott, Leritz and Mumford (2004) pooled 70 creativity training studies. Well-designed training produced substantial, measurable improvements, and the effects carried over beyond the training tasks.
- Concrete strategiesReal techniques, not pep talks.
- Realistic problemsPractice on things like real life.
- Repeated practiceLittle and often, not a one-off workshop.
That shape is the biggest influence on how Creaocity is designed.
Scott, Leritz & Mumford, Creativity Research Journal, 2004
It's something the brain does.
Beaty and colleagues (2018) showed that creative thinking ability is predicted by how three large brain networks connect: the default mode, salience and executive control networks. Their model predicted individual creative ability from brain scans alone.
That study didn't test training, so it can't say whether practice changes those networks. The training studies answer whether it improves with practice, and they say it does.
Beaty et al., PNAS, 2018
Step away. Go for a walk.
Oppezzo and Schwartz (2014) at Stanford found walking increased creative idea generation by around 60% on average compared with sitting, and the effect lasted after people sat back down.
Baird and colleagues (2012) found more original solutions after an undemanding task that let the mind wander than after a demanding task or straight rest. That's incubation, and it's why stepping away so often solves the problem.
So Creaocity is built for short sessions away from a desk, not long grinding blocks.
Oppezzo & Schwartz, JEP: LMC, 2014 · Baird et al., Psychological Science, 2012
What we don't claim.
- Lab tasks aren't lifeMost studies use lab tests of divergent thinking and insight. They correlate with real creative achievement, but they aren't the same thing.
- No trial yetCreaocity hasn't been through a controlled trial. The exercises are built on published research; this combination hasn't been tested. We intend to run that study and publish the results either way.
- No genius buttonPractice reliably improves the skill of generating ideas. What you do with it is still down to you, and a lot of work.
The research library.
Studies explained in plain English in the app's Learn, including what each one doesn't prove. A few of them:
Creativity grows or stalls with the climate around it
A review of Brazilian studies finds that classrooms, schools and cultural habits help or hold back creativity, and that teachers overrate how much they encourage it.
2019Some limits help creative work; too many hurt it
A review of 145 studies suggests limits on time, money, process and specs help creativity up to a point, then start to hold it back.
2010Business owners seek out culture, but don't make more art
In a survey of 8,215 German workers, the self-employed rated themselves more original and went to cultural events more often, but weren't more likely to make art.
2020Curiosity and creativity go together, but the proof is thin
A review finds curious people tend to be more creative, but nearly all the evidence is self-report; just one experiment has sparked curiosity and then measured creativity.
1988Creativity at work and in spare time were only loosely linked
Rating the life histories of 541 Danish adults, researchers found creativity in paid work and in leisure formed separate patterns, and enjoying the arts wasn't the same as making things.
2020A prize for ideas helped only when the judging sounded fair
In one online experiment with 298 adults, a prize for creative ideas raised enjoyment and creativity only when people were told expert judges would pick the winners.
2009Stepping away from a problem helps, most of all with ideas
A meta-analysis of 117 studies finds that setting a problem aside helps solve it, especially open-ended idea tasks, and especially after a real first attempt.
2020Mindfulness tends to help creativity, but the kind matters
A themed review of the research finds a small, fairly steady link between mindfulness and creativity, with open noticing and deliberate mind-wandering looking most useful, and little tested in classrooms.
References
- Scott, G., Leritz, L. E., & Mumford, M. D. (2004). The effectiveness of creativity training: A quantitative review. Creativity Research Journal, 16(4), 361–388.
- Beaty, R. E., et al. (2018). Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity. PNAS, 115(5), 1087–1092.
- Baird, B., et al. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1117–1122.
- Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152.
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