The Effect of Competition on the Creativity and Motivation of Swedish Schoolchildren

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of competition on creativity in a Swedish context. Ninety-nine 5th grade children were divided into two groups and examined on the hypothesis that competition in one group would create an extrinsic constraint and therefore diminish the intrinsic motivation resulting in less creative outcome. Furthermore we hypothesized that the participants in the competition group that reported themselves as more intrinsically motivated would be more creative compared to extrinsically motivated participants. The study did not provide support for the hypotheses; there was no significant difference between the competition group and the control group on creativity outcome. In addition the participants who reported themselves as intrinsically motivated did not produce more creative products than the participants in the control group. These results were not in line with those of studies conducted in an American context. A thorough discussion on why these differences between American and Swedish schoolchildren exist is conducted