Scientists from the University of Arizona (USA) have found that creative people are more likely to use their free time to explore their minds and think about all kinds of ideas. The results of the study were published in the journal Creativity Research.
In most studies of people’s minds, the authors encourage participants to think about specific things or to report ideas that come to volunteers’ minds. But according to the authors of the current study, this significantly limits the results of scientific research and does not answer the question of how people think creatively.
In this study, researchers asked participants to be alone for 10 minutes without access to any digital device. During the “isolation” they took a divergent thinking test. In real time, the volunteers had to answer the question “How to make money using 100 rubber bands” in the most non-standard loud voice.
“We wanted to know what goes through the minds of creative people, especially when there’s nothing to constrain their thinking,” said Quentin Raffaeli, lead author of the study and a University of Arizona psychology graduate student.
The scientists analyzed the volunteers’ responses and found that more creative people have a free flow of ideas and are not bored when left alone. The authors conducted an additional experiment in which they meta-analyzed more than 2,000 responses from creativity-related participants during the pandemic. The results supported the theory that creative people were less bored during self-isolation.
“As we become more and more dependent on our digital devices, I think we need to take time to relax with our thoughts. Understanding why different people think the way they think could lead to promising ways to improve the health and well-being of many people,” the scientists said.
ancient scientists proventhat creativity is supported by courses and travel, not drugs.