善心点亮创造力:内部动机和亲社会动机对创造力的影响

Creating for Others:An Experimental Study of the Effects of Intrinsic Motivation and Prosocial Motivation on Creativity

研究者普遍认为,个体的内部动机促进创造力,但这种观点受到了越来越多的挑战与质疑。最新的动机性信息加工理论认为,亲社会动机能使个体不仅关注新颖性,而且重视实用性,从而提高创造力。本研究采用2×2组间设计,操纵内部动机和亲社会动机,将被试随机分配到其中一种条件下完成一项创造任务。方差分析结果发现,内部动机和亲社会动机对创造力的影响存在交互作用,只有当亲社会动机高时,内部动机才显著提高创造力;内部动机和亲社会动机均高时,个体创造力最高。本研究证明了亲社会动机在创造过程中的重要性,为创造力研究提供了新的视角。

Scholars of creativity research usually believe that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity. However, more and more results have challenged and questioned this conclusion. According to the latest motivated information processing model, prosocial motivation can help people think about not only novel but also useful aspects of ideas to improve the whole creativity. This study used 2x2 between-subjects design. Through the manipulation of intrinsic motivation and prosocial motivation, participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions and completed a creative task. ANOVA indicated that there was a significant interaction effect of intrinsic motivation and prosoeial motivation on creativity, and only when people had high levels of intrinsic motivation coupled with high levels of prosocial motivation, they would be most creative. This study proved the importance of prosocial motivation in creative process, and opened a new perspective of creativity research.