“It is very difficult for people to sustain their creativity. And that’s a problem because a continuous stream of new ideas is critical to remain competitive. We wanted to identify the factors that may constrain people from continually creating new ideas,” explained Dr Deichmann, who tested this theory with an archival study of first-time cookbook authors in the UK, plus two experiments. He was inspired by living above acookery book shop in Amsterdam– in fact, the bookshop owner helped by coding some data for the study.
Dr Deichmann worked withMarkus Baer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis to produce the research paperA recipe for success? Sustaining creativity among first-time creative producers, which has been published in theJournal of Applied Psychology.It provides insights into what sort of conditions puts sustained levels of creativity at risk.
Novelty and acclaim
Deichmann and Baer tested two factors that have been known to enhance (at least to some degree) the success of a creative production, like writing cookbooks. The first is the novelty of the underlying idea, and the second is the acclaim it receives from awards or recognition, which can, paradoxically, constrain the author’s appetite to produce follow-up work in that same domain.
