Context-dependent creativity

Human creativity is not only a personality trait it is rather influenced by the social context. Our motivational model on creativity is based on regulatory focus theory and the mood as information approach. We asume trhatncues in the environment can induce either a promotion focus of approach or a prevention focus of avoidance. A promotion focus facilitates creative thinking, whereas a prevention focus interferes with it. we summarize numerous experiments which are consistent with this predicition. Additionally, recent experiments will be reported which demonstrate that participants in a prevention focus are perseverant on conservative solutions which then leads to deficits in creativity. Finally, some recent whereas avoidance motives are represented in the left hemisphere, facilitating analytic thinking. We discuss our research on the basis of existing theories and point to some implications for everyday life.