How to improve creativity: a study of gamification, money, and punishment

In today’s world of knowledge-based economies, gig economies, crowdsourcing, and overall ICT-driven creativity, the avenues toward creativity and for its cultivation are increasingly diverse and sought after. Researchers have postulated that, in the context of creativity and information technology, not only are people are increasingly driven by the game-like structures of contemporary systems, services, organisational forms, incentive arrangements, and player-like behaviours rather than monetary incentives but also that the platforms that facilitative creative learning are becoming increasingly reminiscent of games. However, it is unclear how this gamification affects creativity vis-à-vis other forms of incentives. In this study, we investigated how gamification, money and punishment affect people’s creativity. We randomly assigned 102 participants to four groups and given different incentives to complete an alternative-uses task. We measured their creativity according to the four classic elements: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The results showed that creativity was significantly higher in the gamification and punishment conditions compared with the control and monetary reward conditions, but creativity was not significantly different between the monetary reward and control conditions. The findings of this study provide theoretical and practical insights to guide people designing effective talent development programmes and stimulating creativity in their employees.