Stopping Short: Gender Differences in Creativity Anxiety Predict Fluency but Not Originality in Creative Performance.
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| Title: | Stopping Short: Gender Differences in Creativity Anxiety Predict Fluency but Not Originality in Creative Performance. |
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| Authors: | Amoukhteh, Stephanie (AUTHOR), Hartley, Isabella (AUTHOR), Daker, Richard (AUTHOR), Green, Adam (AUTHOR), Viskontas, Indre (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Creativity Research Journal. Jul-Sep2026, Vol. 38 Issue 3, p669-683. 15p. |
| Subjects: | Gender differences (Sociology), Self-censorship, Creative ability, Failure (Psychology), Gender inequality, Originality |
| Abstract: | Creative cognition plays a pivotal role in our society, especially in times of resource scarcity and change, and is particularly important in leadership positions. In many creative professions, however, there is a gender disparity at the top, with a larger proportion of men in leadership roles and greater dissemination of their work by influential institutions like art galleries, symphony orchestras, and so on. In many cases, during the process of ideation, creation, and evaluation of artistic or innovative work, creativity specific anxiety can act as a barrier to creative thinking. As previous work has shown, there is a higher incidence of creativity anxiety among women than among men. Here, we explored whether this gender difference might be associated with disparities in creative performance, both in the moment and over the course of a lifetime. In line with previous research, our findings show that females exhibited higher levels of creativity anxiety compared to their male counterparts. Furthermore, as we investigated the relationship between creativity anxiety and creative performance, we found that despite higher levels of creativity anxiety in women, no significant gender differences emerged in overall creative performance. Elevated creativity anxiety in women but not men was associated with the generation of fewer ideas in the Alternate Uses Task, despite no overall differences in fluency between men and women. The originality of these ideas, however, did not correlate with anxiety, nor did it differ from those generated by men. Fluency was also found to be positively correlated with self-reported creative achievement, as was effort on the Alternate Uses Task. Furthermore, we found that creativity anxiety was related to reduced effort on the Alternate Uses Task, providing a potential mechanism through which it might lead to the generation of fewer creative ideas. Our study suggests that creativity anxiety may result in more self-censoring during the idea generation phase in women, ultimately limiting their creative achievement or leadership capacity in situations in which they are asked to create on the fly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Creative cognition plays a pivotal role in our society, especially in times of resource scarcity and change, and is particularly important in leadership positions. In many creative professions, however, there is a gender disparity at the top, with a larger proportion of men in leadership roles and greater dissemination of their work by influential institutions like art galleries, symphony orchestras, and so on. In many cases, during the process of ideation, creation, and evaluation of artistic or innovative work, creativity specific anxiety can act as a barrier to creative thinking. As previous work has shown, there is a higher incidence of creativity anxiety among women than among men. Here, we explored whether this gender difference might be associated with disparities in creative performance, both in the moment and over the course of a lifetime. In line with previous research, our findings show that females exhibited higher levels of creativity anxiety compared to their male counterparts. Furthermore, as we investigated the relationship between creativity anxiety and creative performance, we found that despite higher levels of creativity anxiety in women, no significant gender differences emerged in overall creative performance. Elevated creativity anxiety in women but not men was associated with the generation of fewer ideas in the Alternate Uses Task, despite no overall differences in fluency between men and women. The originality of these ideas, however, did not correlate with anxiety, nor did it differ from those generated by men. Fluency was also found to be positively correlated with self-reported creative achievement, as was effort on the Alternate Uses Task. Furthermore, we found that creativity anxiety was related to reduced effort on the Alternate Uses Task, providing a potential mechanism through which it might lead to the generation of fewer creative ideas. Our study suggests that creativity anxiety may result in more self-censoring during the idea generation phase in women, ultimately limiting their creative achievement or leadership capacity in situations in which they are asked to create on the fly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 10400419 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10400419.2025.2530893 |
