The creative cliff illusion

Significance Creativity research across the social sciences seeks to elucidate factors that enhance and stifle creativity. We demonstrate that people systematically misunderstand their own creativity across an ideation session. Eight studies found that people expect their creativity to decline across an ideation session when it, in fact, tends to improve or persist (we call this misprediction the creative cliff illusion). These beliefs are consequential because they lead people to undervalue ideation: They exhibit less task persistence and lower creative performance. This research documents a fundamental disconnect between people’s beliefs and the reality of how creativity emerges over time. It demonstrates the value of understanding creativity beliefs and has implications for facilitating creativity in individuals and their organizations and institutions.