Some people seem to have the gift of creativity, while others prefer to do more mechanical work. Why is this happening? What are the individual differences between people who are creative and those who are not?
Creativity is usually understood as the ability to create new ideas whose development serves a purpose Popularly, creativity is perceived as an immanent gift to a select few, a talent that everyone would like to possess but that only a few actually have, as an attribute of their own personality.
How are creative people?
For this reason, numerous studies have tried to explain how people can develop these creative abilities, and therefore have detected certain keys and techniques to exploit the creative potential of each subject.
However, until recently, researchers had not paid much attention to the personality traits typical of people with creative abilities (if there was a more or less defined pattern). In order to shed light on this issue, Oyvind Lund Martinsen, professor at the Norwegian Business School (BI), conducted research to sketch the personality profile of creative people in 2011.
Martinsen analyzed the personality traits of a total of 491 subjects among whom were 70 artists, 48 students from the marketing school, as well as professors and students from different adjacent universities.
The results of the study determined seven distinctive traits in people with notable creative abilities. Among all the reported characteristics, such as greater academic or work performance, it was a surprise to find several traits that suggest deficiencies in some aspects of the person such as certain deficiencies in the aspect of interpersonal relationships.
The seven characteristics of the creative personality that the research identified:
1. Associative orientation
Creative people have a great imagination. They usually create a good number of ideas, coupled with a high degree of commitment in their development. They wander between reality and fiction
2. Originality
Their nature leads them to reject social clichés, conventions and standards. They are rebellious and feel the need to act personally according to their own criteria.
3. Commitment
They enjoy carrying out their plans and challenges, overcoming complicated situations until achieving their goals. They enjoy what they do in an extraordinary way: when they work, they remain in a state of flow.
4. Ambition
They like to influence others, to be the center of attention and to obtain recognition and Social prestige This motivates them to improve themselves and want to prove their worth.
5. Holism
The creative subjects They are able to understand the different facets of situations or problems, being able to find creative and ingenious solutions. They do not stick to closed thought structures, but rather manage to successfully combine different techniques, skills and knowledge, being able to create tools or artistic pieces of great value.
6. Emotional instability
They usually experience changing emotions and fluctuations in your mood. These symptoms are usually related to self-confidence problems.
7. Little sociability
They usually show extremely critical and they tend to be reluctant to give their acceptance to other people.
As described in the Norwegian Business School, it seems that all the traits associated with creative thinking, such as associative orientation (related to ingenuity), and flexibility (associated with the ability to project), are the characteristics most determinants for the development of the creative personality.
Regarding the poor levels of sociability found in the study, Martinsen points out that businessmen should try to find a balance in order to make the capacity for cooperation with ingenuity and creativity converge in companies. “Creative workers may lack pragmatism in their actions,” she notes.
