“Curiosity Made the Cat More Creative: Specific Curiosity As a Driver of Creativity”, 2019 (; similar):
The experience of specific curiosity increases creativity.
Idea linking mediates the positive effect of specific curiosity on creativity.
Specific curiosity increases idea linking, which favorably influences creativity.
Idea linking benefits creativity beyond the established individual brainstorming technique.
The present research examines the causal relationship between specific curiosity and creativity. To explicate this relationship, we introduce the concept of idea linking, a cognitive process that entails using aspects of early ideas as input for subsequent ideas in a sequential manner, such that one idea is a stepping stone to the next.
Study 1 demonstrated the causal effect of specific curiosity on creativity [by asking them how a Harry Houdini magic trick was done, telling them they did/did not figure it out, and asking for more ideas how he did it, and rated for creativity by professional magicians]
Study 2, a field study of artisans selling handmade goods online, found that experiencing specific curiosity predicts greater next-day creativity [experience sampling survey of Etsy sellers, correlating self-rated curiosity with craft creativity]
Study 3 demonstrated idea linking as a mechanism for the effect of specific curiosity on creativity. [redoing Study 1, with additional subject introspection about how they came up with their variant ideas]
Study 4 further established the impact of idea linking on creativity, finding that it boosted creativity beyond the well-established intervention of brainstorming. [Study 1, but with instructions to try to brainstorm along the lines of ‘idea linking’]
We discuss specific curiosity as a state that fuels creativity through idea linking and idea linking as a novel technique for creative idea generation.
[Keywords: curiosity, creativity, idea linking]