Recently, the importance of creative thinking, which generates new things by utilizing a variety of basic knowledge, experiences, and skills from various fields, has been emphasized. This study aimed to explore the predictors of creative thinking in high school students using data from the 6th year of the Korean Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS) 2013. For this purpose, the random forest technique, which is useful for exploring multiple variables extensively, was used to derive the major predictors based on the SHAP index, one of the explainable artificial intelligence techniques. The main results are as follows. Achievement motivation, self-confidence, physical self-concept, academic self-concept, community, cooperation, career planning, career action, knowledge information collection and analysis ability, degree of reading enjoyment, meaning of subject content, and student-participatory classes were commonly identified as predictor variables for the sub-factors of creative thinking, including divergent thinking, original flexibility, curiosity and adventure, and inquiry. The common areas of the identified predictors were background and psychological/emotional characteristics, academic-related, career-related, leisure and lifestyle, and school classes. Some predictors were derived differently depending on the sub-factors of creative thinking. Finally, based on the research results, various implications for enhancing students' creative thinking are discussed.