Play and Scientific Creativity: A Critical Review and an Integrative Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Emerging empirical evidence supports play's potential to stimulate and foster scientific creativity. Focusing on how play relates to scientific creativity in adulthood, this review synthesizes the current state of knowledge in four areas: the play element in scientific research, the playfulness of scientists, mechanisms through which play affects scientific creativity, and environmental factors key to the play-to-create process in scientists' work. The review highlights several limitations hindering further research development in this area. Specifically, existing studies: (a) are largely qualitative and focus on descriptive analysis of the forms and/or select aspects of play, (b) do not sufficiently consider the unique characteristics and processes of scientific research, and (c) decontextualize the creative process by separating the player-creator from the environment. Building on this analysis, the author clarifies the conceptualization of play, playfulness, and scientific creativity, differentiates between creative and recreative play in relation to core scientific activities, and identifies useful conceptual and measurement tools to facilitate future domain-specific empirical studies of play and scientific creativity. Collectively, these insights advance a new integrative theoretical framework—the play-to-create model—to encourage and guide systematic and contextualized investigations of how play, playfulness, creative processes, and the environment interact to generate creative scientific outcomes.