Difference between 作り出す and 生み出す・生む

Question

Is this true?

• 作り出す　physically create something and make out of something already exist
• 生み出す・生む　metaphorically create something and make out of something from zero.

Answer 1

Late answer here, but I just asked myself the same question. Here is an example of 生み出す from my textbook (カルテットII):

日本語は、比較的に、おとなしく平板な国民を生み出しているように思われる。

"I think that Japanese, comparatively, produces/gives birth to a calm, "flat" citizenry."

This reading covers the "language vs. culture affects a person's personality" topic.

Here is 作り出す from another reading:

「敵」を作り出す人間

"Humans that Create/Invent Enemies [Subheading]"

This reading covers a Kabuki play about a wolf and a goat that become friends, but in the end the wolf still eats the goat, but with the goat's...consent. The article goes on to ask why the wolf must eat the goat, and explores ideas of humans deliberately categorizing life, etc.

So, as a rule, 作り出す seems to be more tangible than 生み出す, at least according to two use cases I observed. Of course, if you search up both terms under Weblio, 作り出す has more examples of manufacturing tangible things, while 生み出す has more examples of manufacturing abstract qualities, typically nonvolitional. Although 作り出す in the second example seems abstract, the author could have wanted to include the nuance of contriving that 作り出す has, and that humans seem to volitionally manufacture enemies.

生む relatively seems separate from this discussion, however.