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Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity

Last registered on July 04, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016306
Initial registration date
June 29, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 30, 2025, 6:14 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
July 04, 2025, 6:23 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Germany
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Behnud Mir Djawadi
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
René Fahr
PI Affiliation
Paderborn University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-07-04
End date
2026-04-30
Keywords
Behavior, Lab
Additional Keywords
Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, Experimental Economics
JEL code(s)
C91, D91, O31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We investigate the role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on human creativity. Participants receive 20 matchsticks (without heads) and are required to assemble a form within a 5-minute time frame. In addition to a control treatment with no assistance, the AI treatment allows partic-ipants to select among the following options: 1) no assistance, 2) AI assistance in providing prompt words (such as “animal”, “nature”, “transport”) to trigger ideas, or 3) AI assistance in showing concrete but incomplete forms (such as a partial star diagram). At the end of the ex-periment. participants complete a questionnaire with socio-demographic questions and self-assessed items about creativity and their experience with AI in daily and professional life. The assembled forms are photographed and presented to a judging panel that ranks the art works using predefined criteria of originality and elaboration. The top 3 participants of each session receive monetary prizes of decreasing size. Among other objectives, we are interested in determining to what extent AI supports or impedes creativity, whether subjects who rate them-selves as uncreative assemble more creative forms with AI assistance compared to uncreative-rated subjects without assistance, and whether this difference is also observed among subjects who rate themselves as creative.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Mir Djawadi, Behnud and René Fahr. 2025. "Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity." AEA RCT Registry. July 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16306-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2025-07-06
Intervention End Date
2025-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The overall score (consisting of the simple sum of the single scores of the dimensions originality and elaboration) assigned by the judgment panel to participants' completed designs. Each dimension is weighted equally. The two scores in the single dimensions of originality and elaboratio are also used.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants receive 20 matchsticks (without heads) and are required to assemble a form with-in a 5-minute time frame. In addition to a control treatment with no assistance, the AI treatment allows participants to select among the following options: 1) no assistance, 2) AI assistance in providing prompt words (such as “animal”, “nature”, “transport”) to trigger ideas, or 3) AI assistance in showing concrete but incomplete forms (such as a partial star diagram). At the end of the experiment. participants complete a questionnaire with socio-demographic questions and self-assessed items about creativity and their experience with AI in daily and professional life. The assembled designs are photographed and presented to a judging panel that ranks the art works using predefined criteria of originality and elaboration. The overall score is the simple sum of the two dimensions of originality and elaboration, weighted equally. The top 3 participants of each session receive monetary prizes of decreasing size.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer by randomly scheduling when the baseline and when the treatment takes place.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We plan to collect for the baseline and the treatment between 50-70 participants each. As we are also interested how children perform in this task we also collect 50-70 children observation for baseline and treatment each. Instead of money they receive toys.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Between 50-70 adults and 50-70 children for baseline and treatment
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50-70 per treatment arm (baseline + treatment)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
German Association for Experimental Economic Research
IRB Approval Date
2025-06-26
IRB Approval Number
gXw3NW9P
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Hypotheses and Analysis Plan

MD5: 87e24f81a678fd9a835acb355d53d11f

SHA1: b194db358a8e3e77d0d260c4b271ee8474f91e84

Uploaded At: July 04, 2025

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials