There are different functions a mentor can perform for a mentee. The literature on mentoring creativity reveals many proposed functions for mentees' creativity like advancing relevant skills, role-modeling, career-related and psychosocial support. However, only qualitative studies actually investigated how different functions each contribute each specifically to mentees' creativity. Accordingly, research broadly discusses "mentoring works", but no quantitative study looked further into mentoring functions for the field of creativity. The association between these functions and creativity was investigated in an online study with 161 participants including artists, writers, and scientists using existing items from two mentoring scales. Additionally, we measured ability to be autonomously creative with a self-developed scale. We first performed a factor analysis on mentoring items. Several distinguishable functions emerged: Advancing domain relevant skills, role-modeling, interpersonal tensions, career-related and psychosocial support. Creative autonomy was related to psychosocial support. Second, we investigated whether different mentoring functions are associated with everyday creativity and creative achievement, that is, checked for concurrent validity of interpretation. Surprisingly, functions proposed in the mentoring literature could not predict creative outcomes, but interpersonal tensions did for creative achievement. We hypothesize results could be explained by a demanding achievement-orientation of mentors; or arguing about ideas in non-hierarchical relationships.

Recently, researchers have argued about the importance of social aspects in creativity. Based on these arguments, one could hypothesize that if creativity is indeed about social aspects, then a social ability, such as empathy, will be relevant for creativity as an “interface” allowing the person to connect with others. A thorough review of the literature suggests that the association between empathic abilities and creativity may not be as straightforward as this hypothesis and also two recent empirical studies have suggested. This could be attributed to the fact that creativity may involve quite different levels such as creative achievement or everyday creativity. We suggest that social interaction, and with it empathy, plays a larger role in creative achievement than in everyday creative activities. Furthermore, we argue that too much empathy hinders everyday creativity. To explore the impact of empathy on different magnitudes of creativity, we applied two different self-report measures of creativity: creative achievement was measured by the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, while everyday creative activity was measured by the Creative Behavior Inventory. We used the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure empathy. Empathy had a positive correlation to achievement, but an inverted-U relationship to everyday creativity. We conclude that more connectedness is not always better for creativity. Therefore, the relevance of social aspects for creativity should not be generalized, but may depend on the magnitude of creativity considered.

The purpose of the present study was threefold. First, to explore whether a German version of the Creative Product Semantic Scale can be applied to novels, a hitherto poorly investigated creative product. Second, to determine which of the emerging attributes might affect the potential for success of a novel. Third, to check whether the novels judged are distinguishable in terms of their creative attributes. In an online study, participants judged four popular novels from recollection: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Hobbit, Twilight, and Inkheart. A factor analysis of items based on the Harry Potter subsample indicated four major dimensions: Resolution, Novelty, Style and Complexity. Among the dimensions, Resolution was the only dimension predicting potential for commercial success in a multiple regression. Novels were not distinguishable on the basis of the dimensions judged, indicating that the present CPSS did not have enough discriminatory power to detect differences among novels from the same genre. Additional measures indicated judgments had been relatively stable since the reading experience. Furthermore, a large proportion of participants was presumably biased in their memory, due to having watched the respective movie adaptation. This was suggested by a false memory check. Surprisingly however, there were no detectable differences in judgment between those who passed and those who failed the false memory check.

Colonies of the stingless bee Tetragonilla collina frequently occur in unusually high densities and in direct neighborhood (nest aggregations), in rainforests of Southeast Asia. To investigate whether close relatedness and/or similar chemical profiles facilitate the co-occurrence of multiple T. collina colonies, we investigated aggressive behavior, genetic relatedness and cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles within and between colonies and nest aggregations. Although 17 out of 19 colonies within aggregations were largely unrelated, intraspecific aggression between different colonies was basically absent both within and among aggregations. This lack of aggression should favor social parasitism and hence the occurrence of unrelated individuals within a colony. However, low within-colony relatedness was found in only five out of 19 colonies where it may be explained by queen turnover or the occurrence of foreign workers. CHC profiles of colonies within and among aggregations were statistically different. However, many workers could chemically not be assigned to their maternal colony, indicating considerable overlap among colonies in odor profiles of workers. Moreover, odor profiles tended to be more similar within than among aggregations, although most colonies were unrelated. Thus, CHC profiles were a poor indicator of relatedness in T. collina. The lack of correlation between relatedness and chemical similarity in T. collina may be explained by the incorporation of resin-derived terpenes in their CHC profiles. The composition of these terpenes was highly similar among colonies, particularly within aggregations, hence potentially decreasing chemical distinctiveness and increasing behavioral tolerance.

The judgment and ultimately the success of creative products should be determined by their properties. However, it has not been considered so far whether the same applies to books. Earlier research has found an inverted‐U relationship between originality of stimuli and their success. Linguistic originality as a text feature could influence the success of books as creative products in a natural experiment. The present historiometric study investigated whether originality predicts the popularity in a significant sample, the most best‐selling English books from 200 years. Originality was calculated based on word frequency using a commercial service. Popularity was assessed with a composite measure including indicators like number of sold copies. Regression analysis indicated originality had a direct linear effect on popularity, partially moderated by the time of first publishing. That is, while originality was generally beneficial for the success of a best‐seller, the same originality was more appreciated at a later point in time. This is the first quantitative study supporting the long‐held assumption that the evaluation of creative narratives is influenced by temporal context. The fact that some works like The Great Gatsby got more appreciation when they were rediscovered may reflect a general principle rather than mere exceptions.