{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T17:42:04Z","timestamp":1792604524986,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1792540800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002428","name":"Austrian Science Fund","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["P35661"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P35661"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002428","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>It is widely believed that children are more creative than adults, yet direct empirical tests of this assumption are scarce. A qualitative pre-study indicated that creativity is commonly attributed to preschoolers and associated with intrinsically motivated engagement, informing the design of the main study. 92 preschool children and 70 adults completed a divergent thinking task and two drawing tasks varying in structure (free vs. goal-directed). Independent raters evaluated all products for novelty, effectiveness, and overall creativity; participants reported motivation, enjoyment, confidence, and anxiety. Adults outperformed children on externally rated creativity, particularly in structured tasks. In contrast, children reported higher confidence and motivation, lower anxiety, and\u2014except in the structured drawing task\u2014greater enjoyment. Together, these findings challenge the view that children are generally more creative than adults by showing that their apparent advantage lies in confident and intrinsically motivated engagement, whereas creative thinking performance increases with age.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0346553","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T17:21:18Z","timestamp":1792603278000},"page":"e0346553","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Are children really more creative than adults? A mixed-methods examination of creative performance and experience"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Janika","family":"Saretzki","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Graz","place":["Graz, Austria"],"department":["Department of Psychology"]},{"name":"LMU Munich","place":["Munich, Germany"],"department":["Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ines","family":"Fratzl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Graz","place":["Graz, Austria"],"department":["Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Baptiste","family":"Barbot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Psychological Sciences Research Institute","place":["UCLouvain, Louvain-la Neuve, Belgium"]},{"name":"Yale University","place":["New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America"],"department":["Child Study Center"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6258-4476","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mathias","family":"Benedek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Graz","place":["Graz, Austria"],"department":["Department of Psychology"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0346553.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111068","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paid.2021.111068","article-title":"Creativity myths: prevalence and correlates of misconceptions on creativity","volume":"182","author":"M Benedek","year":"2021","journal-title":"Person Indiv Diff"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0346553.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.2478\/ctra-2024-0005","article-title":"The Japanese conception of creativity: myths and facts","volume":"11","author":"C Ishiguro","year":"2024","journal-title":"Creativity Theories\u2013Res-Appl"},{"key":"pone.0346553.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101666","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tsc.2024.101666","article-title":"Creativity knowledge of classroom teachers: predictors and correlates","volume":"54","author":"JS Puryear","year":"2024","journal-title":"Think Skills Creativ"},{"key":"pone.0346553.ref004","volume-title":"Torrance tests of creative thinking: figural forms A und B","author":"EP Torrance","year":"2008"},{"key":"pone.0346553.ref005","volume-title":"EPOC: \u00c9valuation du Potentiel Cr\u00e9atif","author":"T Lubart","year":"2011"},{"key":"pone.0346553.ref006","volume-title":"Test zum sch\u00f6pferischen Denken-Zeichnerisch (TSD-Z)","author":"K Urban","year":"2010"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0346553.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"275","DOI":"10.1007\/s10648-020-09547-9","article-title":"Does the fourth-grade slump in creativity actually exist? 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