Relationship between conceptions of creativity myths and facts, and creative behavior in the workplace

Abstract: Research in the last few years has raised concerns that widespread beliefs in creativity myths, or conceptions of creativity unsupported by scientific evidence, may inhibit creative behavior. Using the Creativity Myths and Facts Questionnaire (CMFQ) developed by Benedek et al. (2021), we analyzed the responses of 1,844 Japanese participants. The results revealed a strong positive correlation between endorsement scores for creativity myths and facts (r = .716). Reanalysis of Benedek et al. (2021)’s publicly available international dataset showed a similarly high correlation (r = .771), indicating that a substantial number of respondents either endorsed or rejected both myths and facts. The participants were then grouped into four categories based on high or low endorsement of creativity myths and facts, and compared levels of creative behavior in the workplace. Regardless of the extent to which respondents endorsed creativity myths, those who endorsed creativity facts tended to report higher levels of creative behavior. This pattern was observed even among individuals who endorsed both myths and facts. These findings suggest that promoting scientifically grounded facts may be more effective in encouraging creative behavior in organizational settings than focusing exclusively on correcting misconceptions.