What is creativity?

Elisabeth McClure, a researcher with the LEGO foundation, questions whether children really are more creative than adults in her TEDxAarhus talk. McClure says that creativity is a combination of originality and appropriateness, and concludes that we need to combine the originality of children with the appropriateness of adults.

I agree that adults and children certainly can learn from each other, but think that appropriateness is the very thing that can kill creativity. It depends, of course, on what you mean with appropriateness (my understanding might be somewhat different from McClure’s?).

Britannica’s definition of creativity resonates more with my view. Britannica writes that “creative individuals tend to be independent and nonconformists in their thought and actions“. The “uncoventionality of thought” in creative persons “may be in part a resistance of acculturation”.

Independent thought and action is not something that is directly encouraged in school. More important is living up to the teacher’s expectations. Conformism and belief in authority are highly appropriate characteristics in school. Few are the children who manage to resist the acculturation.

Britannica mentions that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied creative people in the late 20th century. Csikszentmihalyi “identified creative individuals who were quite negative about their elementary and secondary school experiences”. For them, “the more crucial learning occurred elsewhere“.

A “distinctive characteristic of creative people” is that they can experience “flow”. The concept of “flow” is related to “intrinsic motivation”. It’s “a motivation arising from intense autonomous interest in the work at hand”.

It’s also worth mentioning that Britannica emphasizes that “mastery of a particular domain” is “equally important” for “creative productivity“. Having appropriate knowledge and skill is important for creativity. It’s something that comes with the years as you grow up. Here, I agree with McClure.

So, what is creativity then? Britannica writes in its 2-min summary that creativity “generally refers to a richness of ideas and originality of thinking“. A “highly intelligent person may not be very creative”.