Self-Belief in Creative Fluency Mediates the Association between Life Satisfaction and Optimism Among Adults in Japan: Insights from an Online Survey and Case-Control Workshop

Background: In the context of Japan, beliefs about individual creativity are low. Studies rarely account for multiple factors of creativity or provide brief-session applications. Methods: The present study (1) examines associations between originality and fluency as distinct sources of variation in self-beliefs of satisfaction with life (SWLS) and optimism (LOT-R) in an observational study design of national survey panel participants recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic ( n =880; 401 females; M _age =38.12, SD =4.67), and (2) performs a quasi-experimental comparison of scores taken with emerging adults participating in a three-hour, intercultural creativity-based workshop featuring 15 U.S. and 25 undergraduate students from Japan. Results: Results indicated correlational support for the two subscales of the Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment (RDCA): originality ( life satisfaction : r =.24; optimism : r= .29, p s <.001) and fluency (SWLS: r =.29; LOT-R: r= .31, p s <.001). Mediation analysis revealed unique support for the RDCA factor of fluency ( β =0.15, p =.003) over originality ( β =-0.03, p= .481) as a parallel mediator for the association between optimism and life satisfaction . Case-control comparison revealed that mean factor scores of survey participants for originality were comparable to creative self-assessments after the intercultural workshop ( d= .110, p=. 569), but fluency scores were numerically higher and statistically significant ( d=- .444, p=. 026), in favor of the workshop participants. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the specific creative tendency to generate many ideas is relevant to well-being outcomes and might be shaped by educational settings for adults in Japan, offering implications for instructional designers targeting creative self-efficacy.