The Instability of Creativity Over Weeks Through the Lens of Distributional Models

Abstract

Remote work presents a challenge to workers’ creativity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home requirements. Individual differences in creativity, considered through the lens of distributional models, and their stability across different conditions are unknown. We assess the between-person variability in common metrics of creativity, despite sharing similar experiences of virtual reality and mindfulness. The paper also assesses the stability of an individual’s creativity over time. We measured the creativity of 20 remote-workers daily, during a 9-week study. Creativity was measured with respect to divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Distributional models show significant individual differences in variability of creativity. Stability analyses also revealed that individuals’ creativity is relatively unstable over time— both within and across conditions. Although one measure of divergent creativity was relatively stable, the other was not. We suggest more research should assess the extent of variability in creativity relative to individual differences and under different conditions.