Adults are more creative than children but lack their confidence, suggests new research.
Youngsters “practice” creativity more often and enjoy it more than grown-ups, according to the study.
Researchers found that adults are actually more objectively creative than pre-school children, but are inhibited by anxiety and low self-confidence.
When asked whether children or adults are more creative, most people assume the former.
To explore the topic further, Dr Janika Saretzki and her colleagues at the University of Graz in Austria gathered 92 preschool-aged children and 70 adults, mostly in their 20s.
All the participants completed three creative tasks for the study, published in the journal PLOS One.
Adults and children put to the creativity test
In the first task, the participants had three minutes to come up with as many creative uses as possible for a simple tin can.
In the second, everyone had eight minutes to freely draw with coloured pens on blank paper.
In the third, they received eight additional minutes to invent and draw a unique fantasy animal.
Afterwards, the participants reflected on their confidence, anxiety, and enjoyment of the activities.
Trained raters evaluated the creative products without knowing who created them.
Across all tasks, the adults’ performances were objectively rated as more novel, effective, and creative than the preschoolers’.
Children enjoyed creative tasks more than adults
But, subjectively, the preschoolers excelled: they enjoyed the tasks more and felt more motivation and less anxiety than the adult participants.
Paradoxically, more than three-quarters of the adults in the study believed preschoolers to be their creative superiors.
Dr Saretzki believes that may stem from adults perceiving children’s enthusiasm and confidence for creativity – similarly to how “a ‘sporty’ person is often someone who regularly engages in sports rather than wins competitions.”
She said: “It follows that children reported engaging in creative activity more frequently than adults – about once per day compared to once per week.”
Dr Saretzki, now at the University of Munich in Germany, said future studies will focus on discovering why adults generally rate themselves as less creative than children.
She added: “The popular idea that children are more creative than adults turns out to be overly simplistic.
“Adults came up with more original and effective ideas, but preschoolers were more confident, more motivated and enjoyed the creative tasks more.”
