Can salient reward increase creative performance without reducing intrinsic creative interest?
Two experiments, involving 416 preadolescent school children, investigated the effects of monetary reward on generalized creative performance and intrinsic creative interest. In Experiment 1, the explicit requirement of novel performance in 1 task (generating unusual uses for physical objects) produced greater subsequent creative performance in an entirely different task (picture drawing) when a large reward was used rather than a small reward or no reward. In Experiment 2, reward for novel performance increased subsequent intrinsic creative interest, measured here by the choice to produce original drawings rather than copy a familiar drawing. Intrinsic creative interest was reduced only by reward for uncreative performance. These findings suggest that the explicit requirement of novel performance for salient reward enhances generalized creativity without any loss of intrinsic creative interest.
Eisenberger
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Psychology Department, University of Delaware, Newark 19716-2577, USA. eisenber@strauss.udel.edu
Armeli
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D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011897:Random Allocation; D012201:Reward