Trends in Translational Creativity Research: Introduction to the Special Issue

The rapid evolution of technology and automation today underscores the importance of understanding and facilitating human creativity. Although the psychological science of creativity is a relatively young field, significant progress has been made in recent years, and researchers are increasingly translating their work from the lab to real-world settings, from schools to the workforce. The articles in this special issue outline recent trends in translating creativity science to the wild, namely: studying creativity in real-world samples and contexts; applying cognitive psychology and neuroscience perspectives beyond the lab; and understanding the environmental factors that foster creativity. These advances improve the psychological science of creativity by increasing ecological validity, strengthening our definitional understanding of creativity and reminding us why creativity research matters.