Heeding growing calls to investigate the downstream consequences of being creative for psychological well-being, we propose that the consequences of creativity can be a double-edged sword—boosting feelings of autonomy while at the same time triggering a fear of judgment. In three pre-registered experiments (N = 740), participants were asked to generate either creative or non-creative ideas. Participants in the creative (vs. non-creative) condition reported feeling a higher sense of autonomy while completing the task (Study 1). This feeling of autonomy emerged because participants instructed to generate creative ideas were able to cross multiple idea domains and cross idea boundaries during the process (Studies 2 and 3). However, creative ideation also increased evaluation apprehension because the freedom to think divergently affords the opportunity for choice, which heightens the fear of judgment (Study 3). We discuss the implications of our findings for the promise and peril of creative ideation as a psychological intervention to improve well-being.

注意到越来越多的人呼吁调查创造力对心理健康的下游影响，我们提出创造力的后果可能是一把双刃剑——增强自主感，同时引发对判断的恐惧。在三个预先注册的实验中（N = 740), 参与者被要求产生创造性或非创造性的想法。创造性（与非创造性）条件下的参与者报告说在完成任务时感觉有更高的自主感（研究 1）。这种自主感的出现是因为被指示产生创意的参与者能够在此过程中跨越多个创意领域和创意边界（研究 2 和 3）。然而，创意也增加了评估的顾虑，因为发散性思考的自由提供了选择的机会，这加剧了对判断的恐惧（研究 3）。我们讨论了我们的发现对创造性思维作为改善幸福感的心理干预的前景和风险的影响。