If your work is interesting and enjoyable, odds are you'll crank out an imaginative product. But throw in a judging look, a competitive situation, and creativity takes a dive. At least that's what years of research have found.
Now psychologists say that whether a dip in inventiveness goes hand in hand with a watchful eye (or other constraints) depends on how creative a person is. For some folks, knowing that you're being evaluated can actually boost original thought.
A research team led by Harvard creativity guru Teresa Amabile, Ph.D., asked undergrads with varying degrees of writing talent to pen a story about being a particular age. Half were told their tale would be judged by others; the rest were told it didn't matter how well they did. All the stories were rated for creativity.
What the researchers found surprised them. The threat of evaluation didn't squelch imaginative thinking across the board. Highly skilled writers wrote less creative stories under pressure of criticism, but their less-skilled classmates were actually more inventive when judged.
