Curiosity Causes Creativity? Revealing the Reinforcement Circle between State Curiosity and Creativity

ABSTRACT

Curiosity has long been extolled as a seed for employee creativity. This causality is plausible when considering curiosity as a stable trait. However, curiosity can also oscillate as a transitory state, thus complicating the causal sequence between such state curiosity and creativity. To clarify the causal ordering and achieve a refined understanding of what role state curiosity plays in the creative process, we utilize a random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model (RI‐CLPM) to estimate the reciprocal effects between state curiosity and creativity at the within‐person level. With a full longitudinal panel data across three‐time points (N = 400), we find that at the within‐person level, state curiosity has a positive lagged effect on creativity and creativity also shows a positive lagged effect on state curiosity. This research highlights that curiosity and creativity, in fact, mutually reinforce each other.