Mind full of ideas: A meta-analysis of the mindfulness–creativity link
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.
References2 (61)
- et al.
Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings
Clinical Psychology Review
(2011) Understanding the relationship between mood and creativity: A meta-analysis
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
(2009)- et al.
Mood and personality predict improvement in creativity due to meditation training
Learning and Individual Differences
(2015) - et al.
How to develop creative imagination?
Thinking Skills and Creativity
(2008) - et al.
Meditation, mindfulness, and cognitive flexibility
Consciousness and Cognition
(2009) - et al.
Stepping out of history: Mindfulness improves insight problem solving
Consciousness and Cognition
(2012) - et al.
Creativity and sensory gating indexed by the P50: Selective versus leaky sensory gating in divergent thinkers and creative achievers
Neuropsychologia
(2015) Creativity in context: Update to “the social psychology of creativity”
(1996)- et al.
A meta-analysis of 25 years of research on mood and creativity: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus?
Psychological Bulletin
(2008) - et al.
Specific mindfulness skills differentially predict creative performance
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
(2014)
Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness
Assessment
Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation
Psychological Science
The effect of TM and the TM-Sidhi program on verbal and figural creativity (TTCT), auditory creativity (S and I), and hemispheric dominance (SOLAT)
Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition
Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice
The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Mindfulness: Theoretical foundations and evidence for its salutary effects
Psychological Inquiry
Mindfulness and self-acceptance
Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
Reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Creative Achievement Questionnaire
Creativity Research Journal
Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Modeling dependent effect sizes with three-level meta-analyses: A structural equation modeling approach
Psychological Methods
MetaSEM: An R package for meta-analysis using structural equation modeling
Frontiers in Psychology
A power primer
Psychological Bulletin
Meditate to create: The impact of focused attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking
Frontiers in Psychology
Prior meditation practice modulates performance and strategy use in convergent- and divergent-thinking problem
Mindfulness
Hedonic tone and activation in the mood–creativity link: Towards a dual pathway to creativity model
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Working memory benefits creative insight, musical improvisation, and original ideation through maintained task-focused attention
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
R: A language and environment for statistical computing
Improving creativity performance by short-term meditation
Behavioral and Brain Functions
Transcendental meditation and creativity: An empirical investigation
Journal of Applied Psychology
Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis
Biometrics
Cited by (0)
- 2
Asterisk indicates studies included in the meta-analysis.