Effects of ChatGPT use on undergraduate students’ creativity: a threat to creative thinking?

Abstract

Abstract Concerns have arisen regarding the potential negative impact of long-term ChatGPT use on creative thinking. This study investigates these effects using a one-group, pretest–posttest design involving 31 undergraduates over a 10-week intervention period. Participants used ChatGPT to complete academic assignments focused on designing teaching units on bacterial growth, chronic disease, and the human body. Creativity was assessed using the CREA-Creative Intelligence test, a valid and reliable instrument. Data were analyzed using both frequentist and Bayesian methods. The results showed that 25% of participants experienced decreased creativity, 21.43% remained unchanged, and 53.57% showed improvement. Overall, the study found no evidence that ChatGPT negatively impacts creative thinking.

Keywords

• Artificial intelligence
• ChatGPT
• Creativity
• Education
• Large language models