About this episode

Keith Sawyer interviews Teresa Amabile about the influence of social context on creativity.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pLLZZ2EhLaw In this episode of The Science of Creativity , Keith Sawyer sits down with Teresa Amabile , one of the world's most influential creativity researchers, to explore a deceptively simple question: How much does our social environment shape our creativity? Drawing on more than five decades of research, Amabile dismantles the myth that creativity is solely a matter of individual talent or inspiration. The conversation traces Amabile's groundbreaking research on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, including classic experiments showing how rewards, evaluation, surveillance, and competition can undermine creativity—and how, under the right conditions, external rewards can actually enhance it. The episode closes with practical advice listeners can apply immediately—from keeping a daily progress journal to a surprisingly effective technique borrowed from Ernest Hemingway. This wide-ranging conversation offers deep insights for educators, managers, creatives, and anyone interested in sustaining creativity across a lifetime. Key Takeaways Creativity is not just individual—it's social . While creativity happens in the brain, it is…

People in this episode

Host: Keith Sawyer

Guest: Teresa Amabile

Topics covered

• creativity
• social context
• motivation
• education
• research

Keywords

• creativity
• social environment
• intrinsic motivation
• extrinsic rewards
• research

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Science of Creativity

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