# The Role of Abstraction: Construal Level Can Improve Adolescents’ Idea Selection in the Domain of Social Creativity

## TL;DR

This study explores how abstraction influences adolescents' creative idea selection, particularly in social creativity contexts.

## Contribution

The study reveals how construal level affects creative idea selection in adolescents, with domain-specific differences in social creativity.

## Key findings

- Adolescents with high trait-level construals select more creative ideas than those with low trait-level construals.
- Idea selection in the social creative domain is less creative and novel compared to the general creative domain.
- High state-level construals improve the creativity and applicability of social creative idea selection.

## Abstract

Creative idea selection is an important part of the creative process, but the current research on creative idea selection has not attracted enough attention, and this lack is particularly evident in the research on creativity focusing on adolescents. In view of this, in this study, centered on the creative process, we delved into the effect of the construal level on adolescents’ creative idea selection and whether there were domain differences in this effect. The effect of trait-level construals in the general and social creative domains on creative idea selection was examined in Study 1. The results showed that (1) the creativity of the ideas selected by adolescents with high trait-level construals was higher than that of those with low trait-level construals; (2) the creativity and novelty of idea selection in the social creative domain were significantly lower than those in the general creative domain of adolescents. To determine the consistency and stability of the effects of construal level on creative idea selection, Study 2 distinguished between high and low construal levels on the basis of state initiation. It was demonstrated that (1) the creativity and applicability scores for the idea selection of adolescents with high state-level construals were higher than those of adolescents with low state-level construals; (2) the overall creativity and novelty of adolescents’ idea selection in the social creative domain were significantly lower than those in the general creative domain. On the basis of the above results, the following conclusions were drawn in this study: (1) the overall creativity and novelty of adolescents’ idea selection in the social creative domain are lower than those in the general creative domain, but there are inconsistent results with respect to applicability; (2) both high trait- and state-level construals can promote the creativity and novelty of adolescents’ social creative idea selection.