Is There a Link Between Creativity and Coffee? – Psychology Today

Creativity

Is There a Link Between Creativity and Coffee?
Does drinking coffee stimulate your creativity?

Updated February 24, 2026 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

Key points

Drinking coffee is a universal habit; but also a habit with misconceptions.
Coffee is often viewed as a stimulant for innovation and imagination.
Current research suggests several benefits of caffeine.

Like most readers, I start my day with a tall cup of coffee (or
three). My mind awakens, and I’m ready to tackle several projects:
writing a new book chapter, crafting a commissioned article, or
outlining the initial drafts of this blog. I’m on full alert, I’m
stimulated, and I’m engaged. My fingers fly across the keyboard,
caffeine is surging through my system, and it’s “full steam ahead!”

But wait a minute! Has my creativity, has your creativity, been
enhanced to any significant degree by that jolt of java?

What the Research Says

For most people, a cup of coffee is a daily ritual (current figures
show that people around the world drink a staggering 140,625,000
gallons of coffee globally each day). It is not only a ritual; it is
a habit. As a habit, we often consider it a necessary part of the
creative process, a sensory trigger for generating dynamic ideas or
innovative products. We know that brewing, smelling, and tasting
coffee, quite often, increases our mental alertness by blocking
adenosine (a natural body chemical, one that increases during the
day, often leading to sleepiness) receptors in the brain. As a
result, coffee sustains our attention, improves our reaction time,
and stimulates our working memory.

Although it has been proven to elevate our mood and reduce mental
fatigue, coffee’s effect on our creative inclinations is a little
more complicated.

A study out of the University of Arkansas involved 88 adults, some
of whom were given 200 mg of caffeine, others a placebo. The
participants were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: one
focused on convergent thinking and problem-solving tasks, and the
other on divergent thinking and idea-generation tasks. The
researchers noted that caffeine enhanced convergent, problem-solving
abilities. That is, participants were able to solve more set tasks
after caffeine than after a placebo. In contrast, they also noted
that caffeine did not (emphasis mine) significantly influence
divergent thinking or the ability to create novel ideas or innovative
concepts. They concluded that caffeine seems to help with convergent
problem-solving (the search for single correct answers). However, it
had little to no impact on divergent, out-of-the-ordinary, or
innovative ideas. In short, it affects one type of creative thinking,
but not another.

A 2020 report in Science Daily summarized the preceding research,
noting that “caffeine increases the ability to focus and problem
solve, but it doesn’t stimulate creativity. In addition to the
results on creativity, caffeine did not significantly affect working
memory, but test subjects who took it did report being less sad.”

An additional review of the University of Arkansas research in Sci
News noted, “Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychotropic drug
in the world, with numerous studies documenting the effects of
caffeine on people’s alertness, vigilance, mood, concentration, and
attentional focus.” Also included was this quote, “While the
cognitive benefits of caffeine – increased alertness, improved
vigilance, enhanced focus and improved motor performance—are well
established, the stimulant’s effect on creativity is less known.”
Suffice it to say, our coffee habit has some conjectured benefits,
others more scientific.

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