Past research holds that curiosity motivates creativity via two primary mechanisms—exploration and absorption. We propose that vitality is a more fundamental mechanism integrating them. According to the self‐determination theory, curiosity fuels vitality as it aligns with the natural inclination toward autonomy, competence, and relatedness. It is through enhanced vitality that curiosity further leads to exploration and absorption, which altogether lead to higher creativity. Considering that curiosity varies daily, we adopted a daily diary design over 10 consecutive workdays and tested the proposed effects at the within‐person level. The results confirmed that daily curiosity promotes creativity through elevated daily vitality and daily exploration and absorption. More importantly, when accounting for the effect of daily vitality, the mediating effect of exploration and absorption was no longer significant. The findings thus highlight vitality as a more fundamental mechanism responsible for the positive effect of curiosity on creativity, providing a refined understanding of how curiosity fuels creativity.
{"title":"Vitality at Play: Unraveling the Fundamental Link between Curiosity and Creativity","authors":"Jie (Yonas) Ma, Haoran Zhang, Zhaohui Tong","doi":"10.1002/jocb.1501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.1501","url":null,"abstract":"Past research holds that curiosity motivates creativity via two primary mechanisms—exploration and absorption. We propose that vitality is a more fundamental mechanism integrating them. According to the self‐determination theory, curiosity fuels vitality as it aligns with the natural inclination toward autonomy, competence, and relatedness. It is through enhanced vitality that curiosity further leads to exploration and absorption, which altogether lead to higher creativity. Considering that curiosity varies daily, we adopted a daily diary design over 10 consecutive workdays and tested the proposed effects at the within‐person level. The results confirmed that daily curiosity promotes creativity through elevated daily vitality and daily exploration and absorption. More importantly, when accounting for the effect of daily vitality, the mediating effect of exploration and absorption was no longer significant. The findings thus highlight vitality as a more fundamental mechanism responsible for the positive effect of curiosity on creativity, providing a refined understanding of how curiosity fuels creativity.","PeriodicalId":39915,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Creative Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141740300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research on the implications of negative emotions for creativity has yielded mixed findings. To clarify this relationship, we conducted a short‐term prospective study with data collected across two time points. We also explored the moderating roles of family expressiveness and gender in the creative process. The sample included 392 Japanese adolescents (54.7% female; age range: 12–13 years old). Adolescents reported on their experiences of negative activating emotion (e.g., fear, anxiety) and the degree to which their family members expressed positive emotions (e.g., expressing gratitude) toward each other. A drawing task and an alternative uses task (AUT) were used to measure adolescents' creativity. For creativity expressed in the drawing task, negative activating emotion enhanced creativity in girls only when their families' emotional expressivity was of low or average levels. For creativity indexed by the AUT, a high level of family expressiveness strengthened the relationship between negative activating emotion and creativity in boys but suppressed such a relationship in girls. Findings suggest that, at least among Japanese adolescents, the associations between negative activating emotions and creativity can depend on multiple factors, including family emotional expressivity, gender, and the nature of the creativity task.
关于负面情绪对创造力影响的研究结果不一。为了澄清这种关系,我们进行了一项短期前瞻性研究,收集了两个时间点的数据。我们还探讨了家庭表达能力和性别在创造过程中的调节作用。样本包括 392 名日本青少年(54.7% 为女性;年龄范围:12-13 岁)。青少年报告了他们在消极激活情绪(如恐惧、焦虑)方面的经历,以及家庭成员之间表达积极情绪(如表达感激之情)的程度。绘画任务和替代使用任务(AUT)用于测量青少年的创造力。就绘画任务中表现的创造力而言,只有当女孩家人的情绪表达能力处于较低或一般水平时,消极激活情绪才会提高女孩的创造力。就以 AUT 为指标的创造力而言,高水平的家庭情感表达增强了男孩的负激活情绪与创造力之间的关系,但却抑制了女孩的这种关系。研究结果表明,至少在日本青少年中,负激活情绪与创造力之间的关系取决于多种因素,包括家庭情绪表达能力、性别和创造力任务的性质。
{"title":"The Interplay between Negative Activating Emotions, Family Expressiveness, and Gender: Implications for Creativity","authors":"Minghui Wang, Yusuke Takahashi, Cecilia Cheung","doi":"10.1002/jocb.684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.684","url":null,"abstract":"Research on the implications of negative emotions for creativity has yielded mixed findings. To clarify this relationship, we conducted a short‐term prospective study with data collected across two time points. We also explored the moderating roles of family expressiveness and gender in the creative process. The sample included 392 Japanese adolescents (54.7% female; age range: 12–13 years old). Adolescents reported on their experiences of negative activating emotion (e.g., fear, anxiety) and the degree to which their family members expressed positive emotions (e.g., expressing gratitude) toward each other. A drawing task and an alternative uses task (AUT) were used to measure adolescents' creativity. For creativity expressed in the drawing task, negative activating emotion enhanced creativity in girls only when their families' emotional expressivity was of low or average levels. For creativity indexed by the AUT, a high level of family expressiveness strengthened the relationship between negative activating emotion and creativity in boys but suppressed such a relationship in girls. Findings suggest that, at least among Japanese adolescents, the associations between negative activating emotions and creativity can depend on multiple factors, including family emotional expressivity, gender, and the nature of the creativity task.","PeriodicalId":39915,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Creative Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141613845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}