The role of regulatory focus and expectation on creative decision making

Abstract

According to regulatory focus theory, individuals generally regulate movements towards goals differently—using either a promotion- or a prevention-focused strategy. Recent research has found a close connection between regulatory focus and performance expectation. The current study explored their role on creative decision making. In an experimental setting, regulatory focus and expectation were manipulated and brief video clips of real football games were interrupted at a critical moment when the player with the ball faced a couple of possible actions. Experienced football players were asked to generate options to continue the game situations. The players’ creativity was measured by performance indices for fluency, flexibility, and originality. Results revealed a benefit for players with an induced situational promotion focus as well as negative expectations to their performances on the generation of creative solutions. The findings might have implications for different complex real-life situations in which creativity is attributed to a performance-determining role.