{
  "abstract": "It is widely believed that children are more creative than adults, yet direct empirical tests of this assumption are scarce. A qualitative pre-study indicated that creativity is commonly attributed to preschoolers and associated with intrinsically motivated engagement, informing the design of the main study. 92 preschool children and 70 adults completed a divergent thinking task and two drawing tasks varying in structure (free vs. goal-directed). Independent raters evaluated all products for novelty, effectiveness, and overall creativity; participants reported motivation, enjoyment, confidence, and anxiety. Adults outperformed children on externally rated creativity, particularly in structured tasks. In contrast, children reported higher confidence and motivation, lower anxiety, and—except in the structured drawing task—greater enjoyment. Together, these findings challenge the view that children are generally more creative than adults by showing that their apparent advantage lies in confident and intrinsically motivated engagement, whereas creative thinking performance increases with age.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.",
    "Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.",
    "Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la Neuve, Belgium.",
    "Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America."
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Janika Saretzki"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ines Fratzl"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Baptiste Barbot"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Mathias Benedek",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6258-4476"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2bmmn12ss1cxm.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0346553",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13686510",
  "id": "2bmmn12ss1cxm",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0346553",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3205|Creativity in Education and Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognition/Metacognition"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Creativity"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive science/Cognitive psychology/Language"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Human performance"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Creativity"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Language"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups/Children"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Families/Children"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Research design/Qualitative studies"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Behavior/Human performance"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Creativity"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Psychology/Cognitive psychology/Language"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Sociology/Education/Schools"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223144354",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13686510?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13686510",
  "pmid": "42905627",
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2bmmn12ss1cxm.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0346553",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0346553"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:53Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42905627",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42905627"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "plos:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Are children really more creative than adults? A mixed-methods examination of creative performance and experience",
  "title_text": "Are children really more creative than adults? A mixed-methods examination of creative performance and experience",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:53Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2bmmn12ss1cxm",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}