You probably said this about someone, ‘he or she is the creative type’, as most of us think creativity is a gift that some of us have and others don’t. After all, there are musicians who can write beautiful music, and most of us can’t.
But according to Jonah Lehrer, a science journalist who writes about psychology and neuroscience, and who is the author of the upcoming book ‘Imagine: how creativity works’, there is no such thing as a creative type; it is not a magical power nor a special gene some of us inherit, it is a skill.
What a claim! But there is research which seems to support this groundbreaking idea.
This new research demonstrates that the term creativity is in fact a term which covers a variety of cognitive tools, absolutely not separated from the rest of our intellectual abilities. According to research led by Mark Beeman and John Kounios, the cartoonish flash light associated with a new idea, really exists in the brain: when we solve a problem, a special part of the brain, called the superior anterior temporal gyrus shows a sharp spike in activity. And interestingly enough certain factors make us more likely to have this sudden insight. For example, laughing in front of a funny video, drinking a glass of alcohol (yes!), or doing any other relaxing activity have demonstrated the important benefit to ‘not paying attention’, and not being focused in the creativity process. So this image of the constantly daydreaming poet, the man in the moon, is totally real.
Lehrer said it has now ‘become clear that daydreaming is actually an important element of the creative process, allowing the brain to remix ideas, explore counterfactuals and turn the spotlight of attention inwards. (That’s why increased daydreaming correlates with measures of creativity.)’
This explains why some of the historic biggest epiphanies occurred at the least expected time and in the most unexpected location,… sure, but I don’t have a creative idea every time I take a relaxing shower!
Lehrer also explains that this process requires work, most artists ruminate an idea for a long time, spend hours, days, weeks on it, at the risk to become obsessed with it. Researchers have discovered that the brain has a natural ability to access creativity: we have intuitions, some ‘feelings of knowing’, we suspect we can find an answer if we keep thinking about it, and curiously we have the ability to calculate progress, we feel that we are getting closer to the answer, even though we still don’t know it.
Steve Jobs said that ‘creativity is just connecting things’, and Lehrer suggests that creative persons are seeking to have as many diverse experiences as they can, they look and study a large range of things, because you never know where the answer will come from, and because the brain will eventually connect things.
According to Lehrer, another important aspect of creativity also depends on someone’s ability to attack problems as a beginner, to stay free of all preconceptions and fear of failure.
So can creativity be taught? Lehrer thinks so, the spark of creativity is real, and to get more of these sparks, a relaxed and wandering mind, clear of its preconceived ideas, constantly in touch with its inner child, but also a mind well connected to many subjects, not afraid of failure, combined with a work ethic seem to be necessary. Ok, I will let you know when I have written this brilliant new pop song.