Being female and being well-situated implies higher performance on creative thinking tests: Evidence across 62 countries from PISA 2022

Abstract

Even in the time of artificial intelligence, creative thinking is considered an important 21st century skill. Nevertheless, our understanding of how contextual factors such as socio-economic status (SES) and gender affect creativity is still limited – especially from an international perspective. In the current study, we thus examined the impact of gender and SES on creative thinking across 62 countries, using data from the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Creative thinking, alongside mathematics and reading, was analyzed using a two-stage meta-analytic approach, integrating effect sizes from country-specific samples with a total sample size of N = 493,660. Our results revealed consistent gender disparities, with females outperforming males in creative thinking and reading, a trend robust across countries but with considerable variability. Gender disparities were less pronounced in the mathematical domain. Moreover, SES was found to be a strong predictor of creative thinking, mathematics, and reading, with higher SES associated with better performance across all domains. There was no substantial interaction effect between gender and SES for creative thinking and reading, suggesting that SES advantages are consistent across genders. Our analyses indicated substantial heterogeneity between countries, emphasizing the need for context-specific educational policies. These findings highlight the pervasive influence of gender and SES on fundamental educational outcomes and hence stress the necessity of tailored interventions to address these disparities around the globe.