Department of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
J Appl Psychol. 2010 Jan;95(1):201-12. doi: 10.1037/a0017868.
Competing theoretical models and equivocal evidence leave unanswered questions regarding stressors' effect on creativity. The present meta-analysis of 76 experimental studies (including 82 independent samples) aims to clarify this association and identify factors that may explain differences between studies. Our results suggest that the effect of stressors on creative performance depends on how stress-inducing the stressor is and what type of stress is induced. We found a curvilinear relationship between evaluative stress and creativity such that low evaluative contexts increased creative performance over control conditions, whereas highly evaluative contexts decreased creative performance. We found a linearly negative relationship between uncontrollability and creativity such that more uncontrollability decreased creative performance. The results suggest that stressors' effect on creativity is more complex than previously assumed and points to the need for understanding boundary conditions that shed light on inconsistent findings.
竞争理论模型和模棱两可的证据使得压力源对创造力的影响问题仍未得到解答。本研究对 76 项实验研究（包括 82 个独立样本）进行了荟萃分析，旨在阐明这种关联，并确定可能解释研究之间差异的因素。我们的结果表明，压力源对创造性表现的影响取决于压力源的诱导程度以及诱导的是哪种类型的压力。我们发现评价性压力与创造力之间呈曲线关系，即低评价性环境比对照条件下增加了创造性表现，而高评价性环境则降低了创造性表现。我们发现不可控性与创造力之间呈线性负相关关系，即不可控性增加会降低创造性表现。研究结果表明，压力源对创造力的影响比之前假设的更为复杂，并指出需要了解边界条件，这些条件可以阐明不一致的发现。
