Is There Really a Creativity Crisis? A Critical Review and Meta‐analytic Re‐Appraisal

Abstract

Abstract The idea of a “creativity crisis” is widely accepted in the creativity and education literature. Its popular interpretation as a decline in creativity across generations originates from Kim’s (2011) influential analysis of the re‐norming data in the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). The present work offers a critical review and reappraises the findings of Kim (2011), while incorporating new data from the latest norming edition of the TTCT. We posit that Kim’s (2011) claim of creativity decline was grounded on problematic empirical decisions, statistical approaches, data representation, and interpretation of findings. Based on a sample of over 330,000 participants across TTCT norming editions, we further present a set of cross‐temporal meta‐analyses to revisit generational trends. These analyses reveal no evidence for the notion of a generational decline of creativity, and even less so, for a “creativity crisis.” We conclude by discussing more broadly how beyond the lack of empirical evidence, the notion of creativity crisis represents a counter‐productive societal and scientific myth. A few directions for the improvement of research and assessment practices in creativity are also discussed.

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