What Types of Daydreaming Predict Creativity? Laboratory and Experience Sampling Evidence

Daydreaming-engaging in an internal stream of thought unrelated to the here and now-is often linked to creativity; but not all daydreams are creative or lead to creative ideas. To better understand the relationship between daydreaming and creativity, we distinguish between types of daydreaming that differ in style or content (future planning, pleasant daydreaming, personally meaningful daydreaming, unaware/unintentional daydreaming, sexual daydreaming, and fantastical daydreaming) and explore how these types relate to creativity. To assess both individual differences in daydreaming style (i.e., as a trait-like disposition) and fluctuations in daydreaming within individuals, we measure daydreaming in the lab and have participants track their daydreaming outside the lab via smartphones over a 5-day experience sampling period. In the laboratory, creativity is assessed via convergent and divergent thinking tasks, self-reports of creative behavior, and a creative writing assignment in which participants write a short fictional story. Outside the lab, participants report their creative behavior and inspiration at the end of each day. Whereas we find no clear evidence that daydreaming is related to divergent thinking, personally meaningful daydreaming predicts self-reported creative behavior and daily inspiration, whereas fantastical daydreaming predicts creative writing quality and day-to-day creative behavior. Moreover, daily fluctuations in future planning appear to be positively related to day-to-day creative behavior. We discuss the implications of distinctions between trait-level predictors (what type of daydreamer a person is) and state-level predictors (what type of daydream one engages in) in relation to creative behavior and inspiration.

Automated summary

The study distinguishes between different types of daydreaming, such as future planning, pleasant daydreaming, and personally meaningful daydreaming, finding that personally meaningful daydreaming and fantastical daydreaming have a positive impact on creative behavior, while daily fluctuations in future planning are positively related to day-to-day creative behavior.