Creative Diversity: Patterns in the Creative Habits of ~10,000 People

TL;DR

This study identifies seven distinct clusters of creative habits among nearly 10,000 people, revealing stable patterns and diversity in creative tendencies regardless of discipline or gender.

Contribution

It introduces a novel empirical classification of creative habits into seven stable 'Creative Species' based on a large-scale survey.

Findings

Seven stable 'Creative Species' clusters identified.

Creative habits vary widely and are not strongly predicted by discipline or gender.

Two primary gradients of creative tendencies were discovered.

Abstract

Despite popular media interest in uncovering the creative habits of successful people, there is a surprising paucity of empirical research on the diversity of tendencies and preferences people have when engaged in creative work. We developed a simple survey that characterized 42 creative habits along 21 independent dimensions. Data from 9,633 respondents revealed seven 'Creative Species', or clusters of people with combinations of creative habits that tend to co-occur more than expected by chance. These emergent clusters where relatively stable to random subsampling of the population and to variation in model parameters. The seven Creative Species self-sorted along a primary gradient from those characterized by more 'deliberate' creative habits (e.g., Monotasker, Risk Averse, Routine Seeker, Tenacious, Make it Happen) to those characterized by more 'open' creative habits (e.g. Multitasker, Risk Friendly, Novelty Seeker, Reframer, Let it Happen). A weaker second gradient was defined by outward and rational vs inward and intuitive creators. For the subset of respondents with data about their broad professional discipline (Art, Science, and Business) and gender, some groups were more (or less) common in some Creative Species than expected by chance, but the absolute magnitude of these differences were generally small; and knowing the discipline or gender of a person was not a good single predictor of their creative preferences or tendencies. Together these results suggest that independent of discipline or gender, people vary widely in the habits, behaviors, and contexts in which they feel most creative. Understanding creative diversity is critical for improving the creative performance of both individuals and collaborative teams.