Towards a theory of human creativity sustained by embodied collective intelligence.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1752280 via PubMed
Summary
Creativity arises not from isolated minds but from embodied, collective intelligence. Moderate, time-varying surprise—often felt as bodily sensations—promotes exploration, while interpersonal synchrony and social evaluation stabilize novelty. Ethical norms bound admissible deviation, and empathic perspective-taking, supported by bodily coupling, acts as social precision weighting that shapes whether novelty is accepted or rejected. This yields field-level intelligence (FLI): groups preserve diversity, integrate deviations, and maintain 'just-right' uncertainty under partially connected structures. Testable predictions extend to scientific discovery, design, and human-AI co-creativity.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Creativity depends on dynamic tuning of uncertainty within embodied, collective intelligence, where ethical norms and empathic perspective-taking shape the social acceptance of novelty. |
Abstract
Creativity in human societies may be sustained not by isolated minds but by embodied, collective intelligence. Using music as a tractable model system, this paper reviews evidence that creativity depends on the dynamic tuning of uncertainty: moderate, time-varying surprise-often accompanied by interoceptive bodily sensations-can promote exploration, while interpersonal synchrony and social evaluation can stabilize and transmit what is new. Because creativity itself is value-neutral, its social consequences depend on the co-occurrence of ethics, morality, and empathy. This paper argues that ethical norms bound admissible deviation, and empathic perspective-taking-supported by bodily and physiological coupling-acts as a social form of precision weighting that increases (or decreases) the likelihood that novelty is admitted, reshaped, or rejected by a community. From these ingredients emerges field-level intelligence (FLI): a process in which groups preserve diversity, selectively integrate deviations, and maintain "just-right" uncertainty under partially connected social structures. Although music provides a high-resolution measurement sandbox, this paper articulates boundary conditions and testable predictions for other domains (e.g., scientific discovery, design, and everyday collaboration) and for human-AI co-creativity. This paper outlines an empirical agenda: operationalize FLI and social precision weighting, quantify uncertainty dynamics in embodied interaction, and identify network conditions that sustain socially shared creativity without overgeneralizing across domains.