The purposes of this study were to explore the effect of regulatory focus on creativity and critical thinking, and whether the expectancy to success moderates the relationship between the regulatory focus and creativity and critical thinking. In experiment 1, participants (N = 58) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. To manipulate the promotion, prevention, and neutral conditions, participants in the promotion focus condition were asked to complete imaginative aggressive task, and participants in the prevention focus condition were asked to complete imaginative defensive task, and participants in the neutral condition were asked to read psychological article and then writing it out. After completing the respective task, participants in all conditions filled out the Remote Association Test and Critical Thinking Test. Results indicated that promotion focus motivation priming can promote creative thinking, while prevention focus motivation can promote critical thinking. In experiment 2A, participants (N = 72) were randomly assigned to “promotion and high expectancy,” “promotion and low expectancy,” “prevention and high expectancy,”“prevention and low expectancy,” and control conditions. Under the promotion focus condition, high expectancy group scored higher on creativity than low expectancy group. In experiment 2B, participants (N = 72) were randomly assigned to the same 5 conditions as in 2A; however, the method of inducing regulatory focus was the same as that in Experiment 1. Results show that under the prevention focus condition , the critical thinking performance of the low expectancy is higher than the high expectancy, and under the low expectancy, the prevention focus is higher than promotion focus. In sum, promotion focus motivation priming can promote creative thinking, whereas the prevention focus motivation can promote critical thinking. In addition, the expectancy to success moderates the relationship between the regulatory focus and creativity and critical thinking.