Two Ways to Increase Creativity in Music Competitions

Maxfield compares studies that look at the relationship between creativity and competition. Multiple studies are discussed which have found that participants foster creativity when they are intrinsically motivated. An additional experiment is highlighted that looked at how participants experience competition.

The study by Shalley and Oldham (1997) looking at competition found that participants who were told that they were being compared to answers from the previous year performed better than those who were told they were competing against the other people in the room that they could see or those who were told that there was no competition at all. An explanation may be that the other participants who were present but not seen as direct competition act as an audience which may increase performance.

The author found that if formal competitions want to encourage creative performances by singers, they should shift away from the condition of just winning and toward an informational aspect. Two strategies for doing that are distancing competitors and having an audience of non- competitors or allowing competitors to be near but not visible during performances.

Most musicians hate to audition. Even more so, they hate to pitted against each other. Perhaps formalized competitions could be more palatable if they were set up to be institutions of receiving feedback that engages with creative performances.