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Although personality is vital for creative achievement, little is known about the personality profiles of eminent creators from different domains. The role personality plays in being recognized and acclaimed by public opinion is even more overlooked. In our study, we performed linguistic analyses of postaward interviews on a large sample (N = 225) of Nobel Prize laureates (1957–2019) in art (literature) and science (chemistry, economic sciences, medicine, and physics) to infer creators' personalities. We examined (a) between-domain differences in personality and (b) the links between personality and professional (space devoted to laureates in Encyclopedia Britannica) and popular (the number of language versions of Wikipedia profiles) recognition. When compared to scientists, writers were more open, introvert, and neurotic and less conscientious. While personality was not related to the space devoted to laureates in Encyclopedia Britannica, the number of Wikipedia language versions was not only much higher for writers than for scientists but also positively linked with writers' Openness and Extraversion and negatively linked with their Agreeableness. We discuss the results in light of between-domain differences in personality and in light of the mechanisms of creative people gaining recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competencies related to the evaluation of own cognitive processes, called metacognitive monitoring, are crucial as they help decide whether to persist in or desist from cognitive efforts. One of the most well-known phenomena in this context—the Dunning–Kruger effect—is that less skilled people tend to overestimate their performance. This effect has been reported for various kinds of performance including creativity. More recently, however, it has been suggested that this phenomenon could be a statistical artifact caused by the better-than-average effect and by regression toward the mean. Therefore, we examined the Dunning–Kruger effect in the context of creative thinking performance (i.e., divergent thinking ability) across two studies (Study 1: N = 425; Study 2: N = 317) and applied the classical quartile-based analysis as well as newly recommended, advanced statistical approaches: the Glejser test of heteroscedasticity and nonlinear quadratic regression. We found that the results indeed depended on the employed statistical method: While classical analyses supported the Dunning–Kruger effect across all conditions, it was not consistently supported by the more advanced statistical methods. These findings are in line with recent work challenging certain assumptions of the Dunning–Kruger effect and we discuss factors that undermine accurate self-assessments, especially in the context of creative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative ideation tasks are typically ill-defined and thus should benefit from metacognition. However, the role of metacognitive processes―especially metacognitive control―in creative ideation appears understudied. Therefore, we conducted an online study investigating the relationship between different aspects of metacognitive control and divergent thinking (DT) performance. In line with the recently proposed creative metacognition framework , we devised measures that delineate metacognitive control at the levels of task, performance, and responses: Metacognitive control at task level was assessed in terms of attention focus devoted to each task; metacognitive control at performance level was assessed in terms of the goal-directedness of the employed task strategy; metacognitive control at response level was assessed in terms of how effectively uncreative ideas were screened out. We observed substantial individual differences in all three measures as well as first evidence of their validity. Importantly, metacognitive control at all three levels independently predicted higher DT creativity. Additional analyses suggested that effects of metacognitive control may extend to creative behavior, partly mediated by DT. In sum, this study provides first empirical support for the relevance of distinguishable aspects of metacognitive control at task, performance, and response levels in creative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on creative personality has a long history, most studies have focused on the relationship between traits and creative achievements. In this concise review, I propose broadening our perspective on personality by including creative self-beliefs, malleable self-related schemas, also known as surface characteristics, alongside traditional personality traits, core characteristics that are relatively stable. I present a summary of research, which examines the discriminant and incremental validity of these two types of personality characteristics. I argue that combining individual differences with a socio-cultural perspective on creative personality enables a better understanding of the transition from potential to creative achievements, even when accounting for such established predictors as intelligence and divergent thinking. Finally, I discuss future research directions, including the exploration of interventions supporting creative expression and the further expansion of personality characteristics associated with creative accomplishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-report scales have become the most widely used instruments to capture people’s selfperception of creativity. Previous studies, however, provided only a limited insight into the psychometric properties of such measures. This paper reports an extensive item response theory (IRT) analysis of the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS): one of the most frequently used scales of creative self-concept. Based on samples from 14 studies (overall N > 26,000), we report IRT parameters of creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity scales’ items. We examined whether the scores obtained in the SSCS depend on the length of the response scale (5-versus7-point Likert scales) and whether latent scores are comparable across different data collection methods (online, paper-and-pencil, phone), age, and gender. The results confirmed the two-factor structure of the SSCS, good psychometric properties of its items, as well as invariance regarding response scales, age, gender, and method of data collection. At the same time, the items (and consequently—scales) were easy in the psychometrical sense, thus providing much more reliable scores among individuals who scored low or medium in creative self-concept. Longer (7-point) and shorter (5-point) Likert scales performed similarly, with some psychometric arguments favoring fewer points on the scale. Gender differences were negligible (Cohen’s d between 0.00 and 0.01). We discuss potential ways of further improvement and development of the SSCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored the public conceptualization of creativity on Twitter through co-listed hashtags associated with #creativity in a million tweets. Exploratory Graph Analysis was used to identify a network of semantic clusters, and a pre-trained language model yielded the sentiment of the underlying tweets. The semantic clusters reflect well-known everyday creative domains focused on visual and digital arts, storytelling, and handicraft. Other clusters paid tribute to the role of mind-sets, teams, and imagination, feature business and innovation, and stress the importance of creativity for mental health. In addition, we compared the resulting network to one of #innovation, which had a higher prevalence of technological clusters relating to areas of digital transformation. Both networks are vastly positive, suggesting that the exhibition of potential and success outweighs tweeting about obstacles and failure. Our study provides a bottom-up socio-cultural snapshot of lay conceptualizations of creativity, highlighting commonalities and differences with theorized conceptualizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides an empirical test of the relationship between creative potential, mating, and reproductive success in a sample using natural methods of fertility control: the Meru tribe living in the regions of Laare and Mutuati in Kenya. The participants (N = 133; 65 females) solved a figural creativity test (the Test of Creative Thinking – Drawing Production, TCT-DP) and provided information about the number of spouses, children, length of their schooling, as well as wealth. Analyses demonstrated that creative potential negatively predicted the number of offspring, but this relation was fully mediated by the number of spouses: more creative people more often stayed single and did not have offspring. The theoretical consequences of these findings are discussed in light of the evolutionary psychology of creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Factors driving teachers' creative agency in their professional practice are explored. • Creative self-beliefs increase the likelihood of obtaining more creative outcomes in teachers' educational practice. • Teachers' self-beliefs fuel their self-regulatory efforts, leading to better performance both directly and indirectly. • Both self-beliefs and self-regulation are necessary conditions for developing creative projects. • Teachers' approaches to managing projects differ, resulting in varying levels of creativity in final products. Across two studies, we explore how teachers' creative self-beliefs and self-regulation drive their creativity when faced with complex projects. In Study 1, 173 teachers reported on the most creative project they carried out last year and provided data on their creative self-beliefs (confidence and centrality of creativity) and self-regulation when pursuing projects. Creative self-beliefs were positively associated with the likelihood of obtaining more creative outcomes, both directly and indirectly, by strengthening teachers' self-regulation. Moreover, highly innovative projects were unlikely if teachers' beliefs and self-regulation were low. A latent profile analysis demonstrated three different approaches to carrying out and managing creative projects, resulting in varying levels of creativity in the final projects. These findings were extended and elaborated in a mixed-method Study 2, involving 16 teachers who participated in an intensive 10-week, microlongitudinal diary study and in-depth interviews. This study demonstrated that creative self-regulation allowed the teachers to plan and monitor their actions more effectively, resulting in more creative products. We discuss the role of self-beliefs and self-regulation in teachers' creative agency and recommend future studies and practical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The associative theory of creativity proposes that creative ideas result from connecting remotely related concepts in memory. Previous research found that higher creative individuals exhibit a more flexible organization of semantic memory, generate more uncommon word associations, and judge remote concepts as more related. In this study (N = 93), we used fMRI to investigate brain regions involved in judging the relatedness of concepts that vary in their semantic distance, and how such neural involvement relates to individual differences in creativity. Brain regions where activity increased with semantic relatedness mainly overlapped with default, control, salience, semantic control, and multiple demand networks. The default and semantic control networks exhibited increased involvement when evaluating more remote associations. Finally, higher creative people, who provided higher relatedness judgements on average, exhibited lower activity in those regions, possibly reflecting higher neural efficiency. We discuss these findings in the context of the neurocognitive processing underlying creativity. Overall, our findings indicate that judging remote concepts as related reflects a cognitive mechanism underlying creativity and shed light on the neural correlates of this mechanism. Combining HD-EEG with connectome modeling predicts individual creative behavior from resting-state functional connectivity, highlighting the importance of optimal activation interplay across networks in creative cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the most eminent psychologists of the modern era. His ideas, such as flow, or the systems model of creativity, have inspired numerous studies, theoretical analyses as well as pedagogic and psychological interventions. Alongside Martin Seligman, he founded positive psychology and continues to work to promote it. In this interview, he shares the stories behind his scientific interests, sources of scientific ideas and the process of promoting the concepts he had written about. He also shares his thoughts about academic work performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies examined the dynamics and predictors of momentary creative activity among adults. Study 1 (N =74) applied the experience sampling methodology (ESM) to investigate the likelihood of engaging in creative activity and explain its variability using both within-person predictors (experienced emotions) and between person-predictors (personality and creative activity). This study also demonstrated that the likelihood of momentary creative activity during a random week at the age 52 is predicted by participants' intelligence measured 4 decades ago. Study 2 extended these findings: In a 2-week-long diary study, participants (N = 433) reported their everyday creative behaviors and activity in the spheres related to arts (painting, composing music, writing), science (writing scientific articles, solving technical problems), and everyday functioning (cooking, blogging). Active positive emotions generally predicted day-to-day variability of creative behavior, whereas the role of individual-differences was more complex and domain-specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between creative activity and creative achievement with a focus on the moderating role of dispositional self-regulation. On a large sample (N = 687), we demonstrated robust links between activity and achievement but also found that these associations are moderated by self-regulation. Moreover, the relationship was not only strong in terms of effect size (r s ≥0.50) but followed a necessary-yet-not-sufficient pattern: creative achievement was impossible when activity was low, yet high activity did not guarantee achievement. We discuss theoretical and practical consequences of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a meta-analysis of the relationships between creative self-beliefs (CSBs)-a broad set of characteristics including creative self-efficacy, creative personal identity, and self-rated creativity- and the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) as well as the Huge Two (plasticity and stability) personality traits. A review of the literature identified 25 independent studies and more than 80 correlations per personality factor; these were analyzed using a 3-level meta-analysis model. Openness was consistently the strongest predictor of CSBs (r = .467; 95% Cl: .402, .531), followed by Extraversion (r = .264; 95% Cl: .225, .304), Conscientiousness (r = .133; 95% Cl: .061, .204), Neuroticism (r = -.124; 95% Cl: -.184, -.064), and Agreeableness (r = .070; 95% Cl: .006, .134). These effects were moderated by CSB type; more specifically, the relationships were stronger for domain-general than for domain-specific measures of CSBs. A meta-analytical structural equation model demonstrated that Plasticity was strongly positively correlated with CSBs ((3 = .71), whereas Stability was a negative predictor ((3 = -.23). We discuss whether the relationship between personality and CSBs is causal or correlational and consider the discriminant validity of CSBs as currently defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mindfulness improves people's functioning in many areas, but its relationship with creativity is equivocal. To assess the link between mindfulness and creativity, we present a multilevel meta-analysis of 89 correlations obtained from 20 samples in studies published between 1977 and 2015 and demonstrate a statistically significant, but relatively weak correlation ( r = .22) between these two constructs. This effect was moderated by the type of mindfulness, being significantly lower in case of the awareness aspect of mindfulness, than in the case of the open-monitoring aspect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), an established marker of testosterone level and dominance, and eminent writers’ achievement. The fWHR of laureates (N = 39) and nominees (N = 247) of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1901–1950 was measured together with historiometric data. It was demonstrated that although high-fWHR writers were nominated at a younger age, they waited longer for the prize than their low-fWHR counterparts. The probability of being awarded was predicted by the number of nominations, but fWHR moderated this association—the relationship between the number of nominations and the award probability was stronger among high-fWHR writers. Theoretical explanations of these findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Highlights: [•] Digit ratio predicts actors’ eminence. [•] Productivity and fame are associated with the eminence. [•] Fame mediates the relationship between productivity and eminence. [•] Discussion of domain-specific biological underpinnings of creativity is offered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The main goal of this study was to examine the effects of authors’ name and gender on judges’ assessment of product creativity in 4 different domains (art, science, music, and poetry). A total of 119 participants divided into 5 groups assessed products signed with a fictional author's name (unique vs. typical, male vs. female) or in an anonymous condition. It was observed that depending on the domain, the uniqueness of the author's name and her or his gender was associated with the assessment of creativity of the product. A poem and painting signed with an unusual name and a piece of music whose authorship was attributed to a man with a unique name were assessed as especially creative. In case of scientific theory, works attributed to men were assessed as significantly more creative than those of women. The results are discussed in light of the attributional approach to creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A meta-analysis of the links between creativity and the Dark Triad of personality. • Significant, weak relations between creativity and narcissism and Machiavellianism. • Dark Triad is mainly related to creativity when it was measured with self-report. • The strongest links between Dark Triad traits and scientific creativity. This paper presents a meta-analysis of the relationships between creativity (creative potential, activities, and achievement) and the Dark Triad of personality: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Multilevel meta-analytic models demonstrated a small but significant positive association between creativity and narcissism (r = 0.15 [0.10, 0.29]) and Machiavellianism (r = 0.06 [0.02, 0.09]), but not with psychopathy (r = 0.03 [-0.02, 0.07]). Creativity measures (self-report-vs.-performance), aspects (self-perception, creative activity, creative abilities, creative achievements), and domains (general, art, science, and everyday creativity) moderated the links with the Dark Triad. We discuss the possible mechanism of associations between Dark Triad traits and creativity and highlight future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between parents' and their adolescent children's creative mindsets. In a large sample of parent-child dyads (N > 1,100 dyads), we found that perceiving creativity as possible to be developed (growth mindset) versus stable (fixed mindset) shows significant similarity. There was a moderately strong latent correlation between parents' and children's fixed mindset (r = .31) and a small-to-moderate association between their growth mindsets (r = .21). A person-centered approach (latent profile analysis) explored the different configurations of fixed and growth mindsets within parent and children groups. The results are discussed in light of potential mechanisms that explain the possible within-family transmission of creative mindsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion knowledge involves the ability to recognize and express emotions and understand emotional processes. The neural substrates of emotion knowledge include i.a. the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. These structures are also involved in processing olfactory stimuli and their volume and functional activity have been shown to increase after a period of regular olfactory stimulation (olfactory training, OT). We verified if OT will improve one aspect of emotion knowledge — the ability to match emotional facial expressions. Eighty‐three children (39 boys) aged 6–9 years were randomly assigned either to an OT group (OTG) that smelled a set of four odors (lemon, cloves, eucalyptus, rose) twice a day for 12 weeks or to a placebo group that performed the training with odorless stimuli. Children in the OTG (n = 40) matched emotional facial expressions significantly better after OT as compared with their baseline score. This effect was not present in the placebo group (n = 43) whose scores remained the same after OT. Practical applications: This novel finding suggests the potential of olfactory stimulation in supporting emotion knowledge in children and bridges recent findings in sensory studies, psychophysiology, and emotional development. Further studies are necessary to delineate which aspects of emotion knowledge might be enhanced by OT. In future, OT might be potentially included in programs designed for groups with specific emotion knowledge deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People differ in how they define creativity. Some people see it as malleable and possible to be developed (so-called growth mindset). Others view creativity as a stable and largely unchangeable characteristic (fixed mindset). In this article, we explore whether and to what extent creative mindsets change when everyday (little-c) or eminent (Big-C) creativity categories are experimentally activated by having participants (N = 501) read short descriptions of everyday and eminent creativity. Consistent with our predictions, thinking about renowned creators (the Big-C condition) led participants to exhibit stronger fixed beliefs compared to when they read descriptions of less prominent, little-c creativity. A reversed pattern was observed in the case of growth mindsets. Specifically, growth mindsets increased when little-c creativity was activated but decreased in the Big-C condition. We discuss implications of our findings for theory, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climato-economic theory postulates mechanisms of threat and challenge to explain differences between countries. Interestingly, both of these mechanisms are often considered to be components of the models of organizational climate for creativity. We show that among rich countries, climatic demands are related to creative achievement in a reversed-U manner, whereas the relationship is linear among poor countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: This longitudinal study examines the extent to which personal factors (intelligence and health status), social resources (family socioeconomic status, SES), special school placement and being labelled as a pupil with a disability in childhood predict subjective quality of life and objective life success 23 years later. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 49 individuals with borderline intellectual functioning (BIF), 21 of whom attended special schools and were labelled as having special educational needs; the remaining 28 attended regular schools and were not labelled in this way. Results: Parental SES predicted both subjective quality of life and objective successes in adult life. As hypothesized, the interaction between parental SES and placement in mainstream schools was associated with success in adulthood. Conclusion: We discuss the results in light of labelling theory. Implications for educational policies and the provision of support for families of children with BIF are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores longitudinal links between intelligence measured at age 11 ( N = 1594) and 13 ( N = 255) and creative achievement as tested forty years later (at age 52). Using a dataset from the most recent (fifth: 2015) follow-up to the Warsaw Study (Firkowska et al., 1978), we examined the hypothesis that intelligence forms a necessary-yet-not-sufficient condition for creative achievement. Although the links between intelligence and creativity as estimated with the use of linear (correlations) and nonlinear (segmented regression) analytical methods were generally ambiguous, the recently developed Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA, Dul, 2016a) presented a much clearer pattern demonstrating that high creative middle-age achievement was unlikely with low intelligence in childhood. The strength of the NCA effect size was moderated by the domain of creativity, being higher for cognitively demanding domains (science, inventions, humor, architecture, or writing) than for artistic or everyday domains (cooking, dance, music, visual arts or theatre). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative metacognitive monitoring represents the ability to accurately evaluate the quality of own ideas during idea generation. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first EEG investigation of creative metacognitive monitoring in the brain, using data, of 100 participants, who generated single, original uses of common objects (alternate uses task). After each response, participants subjectively rated the creative quality of their idea. Additionally, five independent external judges rated the creative quality of all ideas. The correspondence between the subjective and the external performance ratings served as a measure of monitoring accuracy. We applied a generalized linear mixed effects model to investigate effects of creative metacognitive monitoring and creative potential on EEG activity in the alpha band at idea and person level. Participants with both higher monitoring skills and higher creative potential showed stronger alpha power decreases at parietal/occipital sites during creative idea generation and evaluation. Interestingly, only more creative people with lower metacognitive monitoring skills showed the expected alpha power increases at parietal/occipital sites during both phases. Furthermore, metacognitive monitoring skills were associated with lower frontal and temporal/central alpha power during idea evaluation (compared to generation) at the person level. This pattern of findings seems to suggest that less internal attention, less memory load, and increased sensory processing are associated with more effective and accurate monitoring of the creative process. This study sheds first light on the brain mechanisms underlying the interplay of creative metacognitive monitoring skills and creative potential. • People adequately discern the creative quality of their ideas. • Generative and evaluative processes are associated with metacognitive monitoring. • Posterior alpha power decreases are associated with metacognitive monitoring. • This was moderated by the creative potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to gain an insight into scholars' concerns emerging from the COVID-19 crisis, we asked scientists from all over the world about their attitudes and predictions regarding the repercussions of this current crisis on academia. Our data showed that the academic world was placed in an unprecedented situation. Results further showed that everybody worked on-line, conducting studies was impossible or highly impeded, and lab work was difficult. Almost a quarter of all scientists participating in our survey were anxious about their scientific employment, and over 25% expected serious financial losses as a consequence of the pandemic. Moreover, we identified sex differences regarding the severity of the COVID-19 impact in the majority of questions. We inferred from this that women perceived to be in a worse situation than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, creativity scholars have been interested in exploring the relationship between creativity and learning. Much of the empirical work in this area has focused on examining correlational links between domain general outcomes of creativity tests and results in school achievement tests. The results of such work have been somewhat variable, but generally suggests a positive albeit modest relationship between creativity and learning. Few studies have examined the relationship between creativity and learning using a more tailored and domain-specific assessment. This paper proposes a new approach to studying creativity and learning using a newly developed Creativity and Learning in School Achievement Test (CLISAT). The first wave of a large cross-sequential study (N = 2,372), which uses the CLISAT is reported. More specifically, a continuum for conceptualizing the assessment of creativity and learning is introduced, the CLISAT validity and reliability are reported, and its relationship with intelligence and divergent thinking is explored. The CLISAT scores are also used to examine a variety of nuanced relationships between academic achievement and creativity in two academic domains (math and language). Implications for theory development and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myths about creativity keep contributing to its mysterious aura despite our increasing scientific understanding of this complex phenomenon. This study examined the prevalence of known creativity myths across six countries from diverse cultural backgrounds and explored why some people believe in them more than others. Results revealed persistent, wide-spread biases in the public conception of creativity, such as attributing creative achievements to spontaneity and chance rather than persistence and expertise. Firmer belief in creativity myths was related to lower education, stronger reliance on undependable sources, and personality traits reflecting the willingness to accept questionable notions and to rely on opinions of others. The findings highlight the need for better communication of evidence-based knowledge to enable more effective support for creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]