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Empathy boosts creativity: A new study on how teaching kids empathy affects their creativity
19.08.2023 04:10
Updated: 13.05.2024 21:24
Creativity can change someone's life, and sometimes pretty unobvious things can boost your child's creativity skills.
New research from the University of Cambridge indicates that teaching children to empathize with others can lead to improvements in their creativity and potentially other positive learning outcomes.
Let's find out more!
A new study on empathy and creativity
The new study involved Design and Technology year 9 pupils from two inner London schools.
One group followed traditional curriculum-prescribed lessons, while the other utilized engineering design thinking tools designed to enhance creativity and empathy when solving real-world problems.
The results revealed a significant increase in creativity among the group that used the engineering design thinking tools.
While the control group initially had higher creativity scores, the intervention group's scores became 78% higher by the end of the study.
The study also found that specific indicators of emotional or cognitive empathy, such as 'emotional expressiveness' and 'open-mindedness', were significantly higher among the intervention group, suggesting that improved empathy contributed to the overall increase in creativity.
Interestingly, the intervention appeared to challenge traditional gender stereotypes.
Boys showed greater improvement in emotional expression, while girls demonstrated enhanced cognitive empathy.
Why is it important?
The research emphasizes the importance of empathy in fostering creativity and engagement in learning.
Encouraging students to think about others' perspectives and feelings when solving real-world problems can have lasting positive effects on their education and personal development.
