Keeping creativity human in the digital age.
The Center for Human Creativity is dedicated to ensuring that the human spirit of creativity — with its role in meaning, identity, and culture — remains central in an increasingly technological world. We research, educate, and advise on the importance of human creativity for both individual and collective well-being.
Creativity gives human life meaning.
It allows us to express our authentic personhood, transmit culture, leave a legacy, connect to others, and realize our potential. By sharing our unique gifts and values through the creative act — whether through art, entrepreneurship, science, or any other form of human creativity — we thrive as individuals and as a species.
But the future of human creativity is on rocky footing.
Advances in AI, social media, algorithmic systems, and mass production — alongside cultural forces like influencer culture, political polarization, and throwaway culture — are threatening creativity in new and strange ways. The result is a creative landscape that is optimized, but lacking in the spirit that has always made the creative act distinctly human.
The Center for Human Creativity is not anti-technology, but pro-human.
We believe that human creativity must remain central amid modern change. Through research, programs, courses, keynotes, and consulting, we help individuals and organizations reconnect with the humanity of creativity, for the betterment of themselves and the world at large.
We study the psychological and cultural conditions that foster creativity. Our work explores creativity's intersection with meaning, inspiration, authenticity, self-censorship, conformity, and individual uniqueness, as well as the entrepreneurial and creative psyche.
Jessica brings the science of creativity, entrepreneurialism, and human potential to stages, classrooms, and boardrooms — from keynotes on the future of human creativity in a digital world to deep dives into the psychology of authentic self-expression.
Our programs guide individuals through the process of understanding who they truly are and how to create more fully from that place. Grounded in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, our courses are taught with both depth and practicality.
We partner with organizations that want to build cultures where creativity can thrive, and help them design offerings at the intersection of humanity and technology. From startups to schools, we help organizations navigate the delicate balance of man and machine.
Rollo MAY
Creativity is the most basic manifestation of a man or woman fulfilling his or her own being in the world.
Carl JUNG
No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you.
Viktor FRANKL
Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated.
Erich FROMM
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
Abraham MASLOW
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write. What a man can be, he must be.
Mihaly CSIKSZENTMIHALYI
Creative personalities contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."
Active Studies
Original research led by Jessica Carson.
Beyond Originality & Effectiveness: The Conceptualization & Development of an Authentic Creativity Scale
Develops and validates the Authentic Creativity Scale — measuring whether a creative work reflects the creator who brought it into being, and whether a work's authenticity influences the meaning, satisfaction, inspiration, and emotion felt by creators and audiences.
The Censorship Paradox: Does Disinhibition Increase Self-Censorship Online?
Tests the counterintuitive hypothesis that exposure disinhibited online environments leads creators to self-censor more by heightening fear of negative evaluation.
The Creator Dilemma: Inauthenticity & the Psychological Costs of AI-Assisted Creative Expression
Examines whether using generative AI to complete creative work triggers feelings of inauthenticity and negative affect in creators — particularly those for whom creativity is central to their identity.
Mary OLIVER
The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, and gave to it neither power nor time.
Franz KAFKA
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
Virginia WOOLF
No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.
Salvador DALÍ
I am not strange. I am just not normal.
Oscar WILDE
To realize one's nature perfectly — that is what each of us is here for.
Sylvia PLATH
I'm so pathetically intense. I just can't be any other way.
Establishes an empirical link between creative engagement and self-actualization, grounding the argument that creativity is central to becoming fully oneself.
Maslow argues that creativity is not a talent but an orientation — a fearless, childlike openness that can be cultivated in anyone.
Argues that cultural context shapes what kinds of novelty are recognized, rewarded, or suppressed.
Identifies originality as a stable personality disposition, linked to independence, complexity-seeking, and tolerance for ambiguity.
Introduces the "Four P's" framework — person, process, product, press — that became a foundational taxonomy for creativity research.
Demonstrates that extrinsic constraints — evaluation, surveillance, competition — systematically undermine intrinsic motivation and creative output.
Proposes the classic four-stage model — preparation, incubation, illumination, verification — still influential nearly a century later.
Maps creativity onto distinct neural systems, offering a neuroscientific account of how creative thought differs from routine cognition.
Meta-analysis of 83 studies finding that creative people share traits including openness, autonomy, and hostility to convention.
Proposes that creative people "buy low, sell high" in ideas — pursuing unpopular notions before the crowd arrives.
Draws on 91 interviews to argue that creativity is inseparable from flow and the interplay of person, domain, and field.
Formalizes "originality and effectiveness" as the standard definition while noting its limitations for capturing the full humanity of creative work.
Reviews divergent thinking, problem finding, and evaluation as cognitive underpinnings of creative thought.
Situates creativity within biological, personal, social, and cultural systems — no single level can fully explain the phenomenon.
Explores how reasoning contributes to personally meaningful creative thought, distinguishing personal from eminent creativity.
May's argument that creativity is an act of courage — a confrontation with anxiety and the unknown inseparable from authentic living.
Executive Director & Founder
Jessica Carson
Jessica Carson is an author, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of psychology, creativity, entrepreneurship, and human potential. She began her career as a Neuroscience & Psychology Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health before moving into the startup and venture ecosystem, where she studied the minds of entrepreneurs and creatives alongside building businesses with them. She is the author of Wired This Way (Chiron Publications), used in entrepreneurship programs at Georgetown University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Psychology at the University of Essex, where she conducts original research on authentic creativity, online self-censorship, and the psychological costs of AI-assisted creative expression.
The essential user's manual for the entrepreneurial spirit... I only wish I'd received this profound, comforting guidance when I began my journey.
Justin McLeod
Founder & CEO, Hinge
Points the way to a healthier life as an entrepreneur, as the first step in any worthy personal or professional pursuit is being honest about one's own experience.
Jon Staff
Founder & CEO, Getaway
The shared language we have has enriched our daily interactions, allowing for greater insights to how each of us operate, provoking empathy, confidence and above all, trust.
Carissa Brady
Partner, Latticework Investment Group
Her sessions are a must for any venture firm or high-horsepower company. We've invited her back a half-dozen times — our founders can't get enough.
Stephen Hays
Founder & Managing Partner, What If? Ventures
This is a message that should be emphasized in universities, incubators, and institutions responsible for educating the next generation.
Howard W. Buffett
Columbia University
The psychiatrist's dream come true — clinically robust, empathetic, and actionable.
Nina Vasan, MD MBA
Director, Brainstorm: Stanford
Deep insights and a road map for enhancing entrepreneurial success.
Harris Eyre MD PhD
Brain Health Entrepreneur & Neuroscientist
Like a Canterbury Tales of entrepreneurs, you will soon be walking your journey with fellow pilgrims... she will show you that creativity and disorder go hand in hand.
Andy Dunn
Co-Founder, Bonobos & Founder, Red Swan Ventures
If you are a parent, you read The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. If you work with founders, you should read Wired This Way.
Osnat Benari
VP, WeWork Labs
An endearing, ageless guidebook for the entrepreneurial spirit.
Martin Ditto
Founder & CEO, DITTO
A unique formulation of a path to wellness and wholeness for entrepreneurs... she helps us to understand that entrepreneurs are not only people, but people who matter.
Michael Freeman, MD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF
A unique and much-needed perspective on the mental and emotional health challenges faced by those trying to create a new world.
John Stokes
Founding Partner, Real Ventures
Carson attends to the whole experience of being a creator — not just the photoshopped and edited versions we often see in the media.
Luke Arthur Burgis
Professor, Catholic University & Author of Wanting
Refreshingly unravels the oft-repeated platitude 'bring your whole self to your work.'
Jessica Straus
Venture Partner, Dundee Venture Capital & Kauffman Fellow
Part self-exploration, part examination of the creative spirit, and part manifesto. But the sum is even greater than the excellent parts.
Allen Gannett
Founder, TrackMaven & Author of The Creative Curve
She provides a clear message to any aspiring entrepreneur that IT IS OK TO BE YOU.
Jeff Reid
Founding Director & Professor, Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative
Should not only be required for anyone that aspires to build products in the 21st century, but also for those people who work with them... insights are relatable and rare.
Chris Messina
Inventor of the Hashtag
A user-manual for the creative mind, and a guide for those who live in their wake.
Jason Silva
Futurist & Former Host, Brain Games
If you are an entrepreneur, you MUST read this book if you want to understand yourself and succeed in business... you can't afford not to.
John Gartner, PhD
Author of The Hypomanic Edge
Carson demonstrates the complexity of a creator's mind... composed harmoniously to shape a beautiful work of art. Breathtaking.
Christian Busch, PhD
Faculty, NYU & Author of The Serendipity Mindset