Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
Founding director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and professor, Child Study Center, Yale University
The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action
Anyone who has ever participated in a brainstorming session knows that most of us do not lack ideas. Yet many people never breathe life into them. To turn inspiration into real achievement, you must decide to act—and then decide to act again and again, despite obstacles, until your thoughts take shape and come to life. This is what psychologist Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D., calls the creativity choice.
In her new book The Creativity Choice: The Science of Making Decisions to Turn Ideas into Action, Pringle—a senior research scientist at Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence—draws on twenty years of research to dispel one of our most stubborn myths: that creativity is an innate gift reserved for the Albert Einsteins, Steve Jobses, and Coco Chanels of the world. In fact, creativity is a decision. And it is one that anyone can learn to make.
With stories ranging from an entrepreneur who built a national nonprofit, to a YouTuber who turned a hobby into a professional career, to a business leader who established a company culture of innovation, Pringle illuminates how people make creative ideas happen. She shows what it takes to get started, the psychological and emotional tools needed to navigate the creative process, and the social conditions that allow creativity to flourish—from the casual relationships that spark unexpected ideas, to the close bonds that sustain risk-taking and perseverance.
Among her key insights: problem finding matters more than problem solving; emotions are not obstacles to creativity but valuable information that can be strategically harnessed; and the difference between a one-hit wonder and a consistent innovator often comes down to the quality of one’s social network. Pringle also explores why people who genuinely want to be creative so often avoid it, and how accepting the anxiety that accompanies originality is itself the first creative act.
Pringle studies the role of emotion, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation in creativity and well-being, as well as how to use the arts (and art-related institutions) to promote emotion and creativity skills. She will be in conversation with Marc Brackett, Ph.D. (FAN ’19, ’25), the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University, and the author of the 2019 bestselling book Permission to Feel and 2025’s Dealing with Feeling.
This event is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
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