Mind full of ideas: A meta-analysis of the mindfulness–creativity link

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Abstract

Mindfulness improves people's functioning in many areas, but its relationship with creativity is equivocal. To assess the link between mindfulness and creativity, we present a multilevel meta-analysis of 89 correlations obtained from 20 samples in studies published between 1977 and 2015 and demonstrate a statistically significant, but relatively weak correlation (r = .22) between these two constructs. This effect was moderated by the type of mindfulness, being significantly lower in case of the awareness aspect of mindfulness, than in the case of the open-monitoring aspect. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Section snippets

The selection of studies

We performed a literature search in the Google Scholar, PsycInfo, Ebsco, and Scopus databases as well as at ResearchGate.net and Academia.edu. The first stage involved a search for articles by means of the following keywords: creativity and mindfulness, creativity and meditation, creative problem solving and mindfulness, and creative problem solving and meditation. In the second stage, we scanned the databases for all the authors of the publications found. In the last stage, the query involved

Results

We processed data in three-steps. First, we estimated overall effect sizes for the relationship between mindfulness and creativity. Second, we fitted three three-level models to assess the role of potential moderators. Finally, we performed an analysis of publication bias to examine whether selective reporting may have influenced the results.

Discussion

Although famous creators are sometimes absentminded, creativity seems to require mindfulness. Indeed, this meta-analysis showed that creativity and mindfulness are significantly related, with a “small-to-medium” effect size (Cohen, 1992). Although this effect was not moderated by the design of the studies, it tended to be stronger when creativity measurement had the form of insight tasks rather than divergent thinking tasks. When the aspects of creative thinking skills were regressed on the

Acknowledgements

This article was written thanks to the funding obtained in the Mobility Plus program (1152/1/MOB/2014/0) from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland.

Maciej Karwowski was supported by the Iuventus Plus program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

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    Asterisk indicates studies included in the meta-analysis.

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