Creativity on Tap? The Effect of Creativity Anxiety Under Evaluative Pressure

Creative achievement is critical for education, work and wider society. Creativity anxiety – a distinct, generalizable form of anxiety that emerges at the prospect of having to be creative – is a newly established trait that varies between individuals and has been linked to lower creative achievement. This study tested the interaction between trait creativity anxiety and creative evaluative pressure on a well-established objective measure linked to creative ability – semantic distance. Participants performed a word association task under two instruction conditions designed to manipulate creative evaluative pressure. Participants were first instructed to respond with the first word that came to mind, before repeating the task with the added information that the task was measuring creativity. The results revealed that creative pressure increased semantic distance between cues and responses, similar to the established "be creative" effect. Critically, this "be creative" effect was reduced among participants with higher levels of creativity anxiety. The findings are hence consistent with the proposal that creativity anxiety hinders people's ability to think creatively on demand. These findings will guide further research on creativity anxiety and inform intervention strategies to unlock people's creative potential.