The Ecology of Creative Engagement: Patterns of Production, Consumption, and Practice

This study introduces a methodologically novel approach to creativity research by simultaneously exploring creative production, consumption, and practice within a unified research design. This integration enables the first systematic analysis of how these three forms of creative engagement co-occur and interact across multiple domains in university students. Participants reported on their creative achievements, time investment, aspirations, comparison standards, and audience orientations across 11 domains. Correlation and logistic regression analyses revealed broadly consistent within-domain alignment: individuals who produced something creative in a domain were generally more likely to consume creative content from it. Literature, visual arts, and film/video & TV showed stronger cross-domain connections, whereas science and sports were more domain-bound. Creative consumption exhibited a more generalized structure, indicating stronger interrelationships among domains, whereas creative production clustered into smaller, domain-specific groupings. Creative practice was positively associated with both production and consumption, underscoring their possible interdependence. Breadth of creative production and consumption showed limited predictive potential for self-reported creative achievements, and preference patterns were slightly more coherent in production than in consumption. Together, these findings show that production, consumption, and practice are closely linked dimensions of creative engagement, broadening the conceptual and empirical scope of creativity research beyond its traditional production-centric focus.