Adults are more objectively creative than preschoolers, but are inhibited by anxiety and low self-confidence, according to a study published October 21, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Janika Saretzki from the University of Graz, Austria, and colleagues.
Do we lose our creativity with age? When asked whether children or adults are more creative, most people assume the former. To explore this tension between public opinion and scientific evidence, Saretzki and colleagues gathered 92 preschool-aged children and 70 adults, mostly in their 20s. Everyone completed three creative tasks. First, participants had 3 minutes to come up with as many creative uses as possible for a simple tin can. Second, everyone had about 8 minutes to freely draw with colored pens on blank paper. Third, they received 8 additional minutes to invent and draw a unique fantasy animal. Afterwards, participants reflected on their confidence, anxiety, and enjoyment of the activities.
Trained raters evaluated the creative products without knowing who created them. Across all tasks, the adults' performances were objectively rated as more novel, effective, and creative than the preschoolers'. Subjectively, though, the preschoolers excelled: they enjoyed the tasks more and felt more motivation and less anxiety than their older counterparts.
Paradoxically, more than three-fourths of the adults in this study believed preschoolers to be their creative superiors. The researchers posit this may stem from adults perceiving children's enthusiasm and confidence for creativity — similarly to how "a 'sporty' person is often someone who regularly engages in sports rather than wins competitions." It follows that children reported engaging in creative activity more frequently than adults (about once per day vs. once per week).
The researchers said future studies will focus on discovering why adults generally rate themselves as less creative than children.
The authors add: "The popular idea that children are more creative than adults turns out to be overly simplistic. Adults came up with more original and effective ideas, but preschoolers were more confident, more motivated and enjoyed the creative tasks more."
Author interview: https://plos.io/4iah5pd
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4hC51wV
Citation: Saretzki J, Fratzl I, Barbot B, Benedek M (2026) Are children really more creative than adults? A mixed-methods examination of creative performance and experience. PLoS One 21(10): e0346553. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0346553
Author countries: Here
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
