Be curious: Strategic curiosity drives creativity

Abstract

Ivancovsky et al. provide a compelling argument for the role of curiosity in creative thinking. We argue that (a) trait-like curiosity is necessary to engage in creative actions and (b) state-like curiosity might be effectively and strategically induced during interventions. Thus, we posit that curiosity works in an agentic and strategic way in strengthening creativity.

One of the greatest minds of all time – Albert Einstein – credited passionate curiosity rather than special talents for his scientific discoveries. While we doubt that curiosity alone would ever suffice to make contributions Einstein made, considering curiosity a powerful driver of creativity goes without saying. Therefore, Ivancovsky et al.'s review (target article) is ambitious and timely. In this commentary, we offer some additional routes for considering the links between curiosity and creativity, specifically by emphasizing the role of curiosity in creative activity rather than creative thinking.

Curiosity and creativity are broad constructs that surprisingly rarely intersected so far (but see Gross, Zedelius, & Schooler, 2020). Curiosity is multidimensional – to mention exploratory and deprivation curiosity – and so is creativity. In their feature article, Ivancovsky et al. focus exclusively on creative thinking, but real-life creativity requires action: Taking unknown and risky routes. A feeling of agency drives such action. When people hold confidence (i.e., feel that they possess the necessary skills to deal with tasks and problems) and consider being creative central to their identity, the chances for engaging in creative activity grow (Karwowski & Beghetto, 2019). Consequently, we posit that curiosity, mainly exploratory curiosity, plays a vital role in creative agency. Moreover, we see curiosity as an effective strategy for stimulating people's creative engagement. Below, we unpack this reasoning, hoping to enrich Ivancovsky et al.'s perspectives.

As a recent meta-analysis (Schutte & Malouff, 2020) demonstrated, there are robust links between trait-like curiosity and self-reported creativity (r = 0.52), but a negligible correlation when rated creativity is considered (r = 0.16). Another study (Karwowski, 2012) found a strong latent correlation (r = 0.72) between exploratory curiosity (stretching) and creative self-efficacy and only slightly weaker links between creative self-efficacy and embracing (i.e., accepting unpredictability, r = 0.67). At the same time, there are robust links between creative confidence and openness to experience (Karwowski & Lebuda, 2016), and curiosity occupies a prominent place in the structure of openness (Christensen, Cotter, & Silvia, 2019), so openness might confound the relationship between curiosity and creative agency. In short, however, although studies relying on trait-like self-report measures do not allow for causal conclusions regarding the links between curiosity and creative agency, creative activity and – consequently – creative accomplishments seem unlikely without exploratory curiosity. Not only are creative writers characterized by a higher level of curious daydreams than non-writers (Zedelius & Schooler, 2021), but there are also synergetic effects of creative confidence and intellectual risk-taking (a factor closely conceptually related to exploratory curiosity) in explaining creative activity and achievement across various domains (Beghetto, Karwowski, & Reiter-Palmon, 2021).

Apart from the role of trait-like curiosity in creative action, studies utilizing micro-longitudinal, dynamic designs show that a large amount of variability in both curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2013; Lydon-Staley, Zurn, & Bassett, 2020) and creative behavior (Karwowski, Lebuda, Szumski, & Firkowska-Mankiewicz, 2017; Silvia et al., 2014; Smith, Pickering, & Bhattacharya, 2022) stems from within- rather than between-person variation. Regardless of people's relatively stable tendencies to engage in novelty-seeking behavior, the state of being curious and the engagement in creative activities vary on a daily or even moment-to-moment basis.

Thus, the link between curiosity and creativity is likely reciprocal (see Ma and Wei, 2023). The state of curiosity, particularly its approach-oriented nature, holds the potential to motivate and support actual action. As proposed elsewhere (Kashdan & Fincham, 2002), state-like curiosity might serve as a self-regulatory mechanism promoting creative engagement and sustained efforts toward creative goal attainment. However, empirical attempts to test such boosting effects of state curiosity are scarce. Apart from experimental designs, we see great potential for examining the curiosity–creativity dynamic link in research that uses experience sampling methodologies. For instance, the state of curiosity predicts next-day creativity among semi-professional creators (Hagtvedt, Dossinger, Harrison, & Huang, 2019, Study 2). The mechanism where state-like curiosity drives creative engagement has apparent practical implications. Is it possible to make people more willing to engage in creative actions by enhancing their feelings of curiosity?

We propose that curiosity might be strategically induced during wise interventions (Walton & Crum, 2021), thus building engagement in real-life creative activities. Such interventions promote or change specific behaviors by providing opportunities to develop a new way of thinking about the self or look at a situation differently. Given the central role of evaluations or appraisals in conceptualizations of curiosity (e.g., Pekrun, 2019; Silvia, 2008), altering what and why people feel curious can effectively and strategically stimulate their creative engagement.

Take, for example, a daily diary intervention (Zielińska, Lebuda, & Karwowski, 2022), which showed that boosting people's creative confidence and making the importance of creativity more salient results in greater engagement in everyday creative activities. These effects were achieved using brief prompts that – although focused on strengthening creative agency – also sparked curiosity. For instance, one of the tasks read: Over the course of today and tomorrow, try to reflect and generate some sensible reasons for being creative. What does this give us? What does it mean for yourself and other people? Whether – and why! – is it worth developing your own and other people's creativity? Try to ask yourself these questions in different situations. Such prompts, while fostering creative centrality and confidence, increased the intrinsic value of creative functioning and its usefulness (Dubey, Griffiths, & Lombrozo, 2022) and promoted curiosity. Moreover, they resulted in a higher likelihood of creative activity the next day. We believe these kinds of interventions form a valuable addition to experimental studies, particularly those employing behavioral measures of curiosity (Gross et al., 2020), and offer a deeper understanding of the dynamic interplay between creativity and curiosity in real-life contexts.