The Recognizability of Individual Creative Styles Within and Across Domains

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that individuals' creative styles are recognizable within and across different artistic domains, suggesting a unique internal model influences all creative outputs.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that creative styles are identifiable across domains, highlighting the cross-domain consistency of individual creative expression.

Findings

Participants recognized creators above chance levels within domains.

Participants recognized creators above chance levels across domains.

Creative styles are linked to an individual's internal world model.

Abstract

We present a set of studies that tested the hypothesis that creative style is recognizable within and across domains. Art students were shown two sets of paintings, the first by five famous artists and the second by their art student peers. For both sets, they guessed the creators of the works at above-chance levels. In a similar study, creative writing students guessed at above-chance levels which passages were written by which of five famous writers, and which passages were written by which of their writing student peers. When creative writing students were asked to produce works of art, they guessed at above-chance levels which of their peers produced which artwork. Finally, art students who were familiar with each other's paintings guessed at above-chance levels which of their peers produced which non-painting artwork. The findings support the hypothesis that creative styles are recognizable not just within but also across domains. We suggest this is because all of an individual's creative outputs are expressions of a particular underlying uniquely structured self-organizing internal model of the world.