Autonomous creativity: The implicit autonomy motive fosters creative production and innovative behavior at school

ABSTRACT Theories of creativity and empirical evidence have highlighted the importance of autonomy as a motivational source of creativity. However, we know little about the relationship between the implicit autonomy motive and creativity. Using a multi-method multi-informant design, we investigated the relationship between implicit autonomy motives and creative production. We assessed the implicit and explicit autonomy motives of N = 108 adolescents using the Operant Motive Test (OMT) and an explicit motive questionnaire. Then participants completed a creative figural drawing task. In addition, we collected teacher ratings regarding participants’ innovative behavior. Results revealed that implicit autonomy dispositions predicted not only production in a figural drawing task, but also teacher ratings of innovative behavior. These positive relationships remained stable when controlling for achievement motivations and other autonomy-related variables. In contrast, explicit autonomy dispositions could not predict creative production or teacher ratings of innovative behavior. We conclude that the implicit autonomy motive is an energizing force of creative production.