Modeling influences on divergent thinking and artistic creativity

Despite widespread evidence of modeling effects across a wide range of human behaviors, empirical support for the role of modeling on creativity has been mixed and limited. In this study, 138 Chinese middle school students were separated into two groups, with one completing divergent thinking (DT) tasks and the other completing artistic creativity tasks. Half of each group were exposed to highly creative models beforehand, and half were exposed to no models. Results provide evidence of significant and large modeling effects on both DT and artistic creativity, although post hoc analyses suggest that the DT effects are largely restricted to verbal DT tasks.