Exploring the Connections Between Creativity and Aesthetics

Creativity and aesthetics have long been studied as two largely independent fields. Despite this separation, there is growing recognition of the reciprocal ties that bind creative production and aesthetic experience. Most creators produce works that they hope will be appealing to a target audience. Likewise, modern-day consumers find novelty to be a highly appealing feature of the objects that they seek out. Therefore, there are strong reciprocal connections between creators (as producers) and consumers (as perceivers) that are generally ignored in the study of creativity and aesthetics on their own.

The current Research Topic aims to synthesize and advance scientific understanding of the multifaceted interconnections between creativity and aesthetics. The objective is to bring together contributions that highlight how creative intentions and aesthetic outcomes interact across contexts and disciplines, with a particular focus on the reciprocal influences between creators and consumers.

The Research Topic is limited to investigations that explicitly address the intersection of creativity and aesthetics, including, but not restricted to, cognitive, cultural, neural, physiological, clinical, educational, and evolutionary approaches. Studies focused solely on one of the two fields without reference to their interrelations fall outside its scope. To gather further insights into the shared mechanisms, bidirectional influences, and contextual factors underlying creativity and aesthetics, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• How creators – including improvisers – attempt to produce works that are aesthetically appealing to their intended audience of consumers
• The influence of consumers’ aesthetic preferences and feedback on the decision-making processes of creators
• The aesthetic appeal of novelty
• How imbuing a work with aesthetic features increases its perceived novelty
• The pleasure induced by creative activities, including leisure activities
• Psychological linkages between creativeness and aesthetic sensitivity in individuals
• Evolutionary perspectives on the creative use of aesthetic signaling during courtship and other social behaviors
• Shared neural substrates for creative production and aesthetic experience
• Cross-cultural investigations of the creativity-aesthetics relationship

Appendix: Article types invited include original research, reviews, meta-analyses, theoretical articles, opinion pieces, and methodological papers that directly address the creativity–aesthetics interface.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Creativity, aesthetics, novelty, art perception, creative cognition

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.