The science of human creativity.
Our research draws from social psychology, neuroscience, positive psychology, humanistic psychology, and existential philosophy to investigate creativity as a fundamentally human act.
Current Research
Original research led by Jessica Carson in collaboration with colleagues.
Scale Development · Positive Psychology
Beyond Originality & Effectiveness: The Conceptualization & Development of an Authentic Creativity Scale
Creativity has long been theoretically understood as a humanistic act through which individuals express their authentic personhood, exercise their unique gifts, and realize their potential. Yet this human dimension is largely missing from creativity's empirical measurement. This study develops and validates the Authentic Creativity Scale (ACS) — a new psychometric instrument measuring the degree to which a creative work reflects the creator's true self, and whether this affects meaning, satisfaction, inspiration, and affect in the creator and their audience.
Online Behavior · Social Psychology
The Censorship Paradox: Does Disinhibition Increase Self-Censorship Online?
In contexts where people are permitted to respond to others in uncensored ways, does self-censorship increase among potential expressors? This study experimentally manipulates the level of disinhibition in a simulated online environment to test the counterintuitive hypothesis that exposure to disinhibited environments leads creators to self-censor more — not less — by heightening fear of negative evaluation and the threat of social sanction.
AI & Creativity · Identity · Well-being
The Creator Dilemma: Inauthenticity & the Psychological Costs of AI-Assisted Creative Expression
While generative AI can enhance creative productivity, the act of creating has long been understood as a fundamentally human act through which individuals express their authentic personhood. This study examines whether using AI to complete creative work triggers feelings of inauthenticity, moral discomfort, and negative affect in creators — particularly those for whom creativity is central to their identity.
Archive Note
The papers collected here represent some of the Center's favorite contributions to creativity research throughout history — spanning the foundational frameworks, empirical studies, and humanistic arguments. Where possible, open-access PDFs have been provided so that this literature is freely available to all.
Reports a positive association between self-actualization and creativity, offering empirical support for the long-standing humanistic view that creative potential is linked to fuller psychological development.
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Maslow describes creativity as a broadly human attitude marked by openness, spontaneity, innocence of perception, and reduced fear or defensiveness, rather than as a rare gift limited to artists.
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Argues that creativity cannot be understood apart from culture, because whether something counts as creative depends not only on novelty but on social recognition and value within a particular context.
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Examines originality as a measurable disposition and links it to traits such as independence, preference for complexity, and a greater tolerance for unconventionality.
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Introduces the “Four P’s” framework — person, process, product, and press — which became one of the field’s most influential ways of organizing creativity research.
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Presents a social-psychological account of creativity in which intrinsic motivation is central and external conditions such as evaluation, surveillance, and rewards can either support or undermine creative performance.
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Proposes the classic four-stage model of creative thinking — preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification — a framework that remains influential in discussions of process.
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Outlines a neuroscientific framework in which different kinds of creative insight arise from distinct neural circuits, arguing against the idea of a single “creativity center” in the brain.
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Meta-analysis showing that creative scientists and artists tend to differ from less creative peers on personality traits such as openness, autonomy, and nonconformity, with some domain-specific differences as well.
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Proposes that creativity emerges from the confluence of six interrelated resources—intellectual abilities, knowledge, thinking styles, personality, motivation, and environment—and is expressed when individuals are willing to pursue and develop ideas that are initially undervalued by others.
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Drawing on interviews with highly creative individuals, Csikszentmihalyi argues that creativity emerges from the interaction of person, domain, and field, with flow often characterizing the creative process.
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Clarifies the field’s standard definition by arguing that creativity requires both originality and effectiveness, distinguishing creative work from ideas that are merely novel or merely useful.
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Reviews major cognitive components of creativity, including divergent thinking, problem finding, and evaluation, and considers how these processes contribute to creative thought.
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Proposes reorganizing creativity research into a hierarchical framework that distinguishes creative potential from creative performance and places familiar constructs such as person, process, product, and press within a broader structure.
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Explores how reasoning contributes to personal creativity, emphasizing creative thought that is original and meaningful for the individual even when it is not historically groundbreaking.
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Argues that creativity is inseparable from courage, because bringing something new into being requires confronting anxiety, uncertainty, and the risks of authentic self-expression.
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Rogers conceptualizes creativity as an expression of the organism’s actualizing tendency, emerging under conditions of psychological safety and freedom that allow individuals to be open to experience and to trust their inner processes.
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Extends Amabile’s componential approach to organizations, showing how individual expertise, creative-thinking skills, task motivation, and the work environment jointly shape creativity and innovation.
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A later articulation of Amabile’s componential theory, proposing that creativity depends on domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant processes, and task motivation, especially intrinsic motivation.
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Argues that creativity is a widely distributed, everyday human capacity expressed in ordinary life, and explores its importance for adaptation, meaning, and psychological well-being.
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Revisits and updates Maslow’s concept of self-actualization using contemporary personality and well-being research, showing how it can be understood and studied in modern psychological terms.
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