Lesson 3: Distinguishing Creativity

Is there a Relationship between Creativity and Intelligence?

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

― Albert Einstein 

The relationship between creativity and intelligence reflects a long-standing debate. There are 2 main ideas:

1) Intelligence enables creativity; i.e. you must be intelligent to be creative and not all intelligent people are creative but all creative people must have a certain level of intelligence.

2) Intelligence is independent of creativity; i.e. some people can be intelligent without being creative and some people can be creative without being intelligent.

Not surprisingly, the results often depend on the test; i.e. how intelligence and creativity are operationally defined. Researchers typically look to see if 2 tests - a test of creativity and a test of intelligence - are highly correlated; if they are highly correlated, they are less likely to be independent of each other. If they are not correlated, they are more likely to be independent. 

Sternberg (2001) reported some findings that most researchers agree upon. First, creative people usually have above average Intelligence Quotients (IQs).  Second, however, the correlation between IQ and creativity is variable, depending on the measures used. For example, Sternberg reports that correlations between I.Q. and the R.A.T. have been moderate (.55 with the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children, .43 with the S.A.T. verbal, and .41 with the Lorge-Thorndyke Verbal intelligence measures). Correlations with quantitative measures of intelligence were lower (from .20 to .34). Correlations with other creativity measures, like the Torrance tests, have been even more variable (Sternberg, 2001).

Are you new to interpreting correlations? Click here Links to an external site. for how to interpret correlations.

Is creativity a general skill or a specific one?

What if Picasso studied music instead of painting? Would he have been just as successful? In other words, was Picasso’s creativity a general skill that could have been applied to anything at all – science, comedy, or cooking- with the same eminent success?

There is a longstanding debate among researchers who study intelligence about whether or not there is a general intelligence (g) or multiple intelligences (see Gardener; Sternberg). The same is true for creativity: is there 1 skill underlying all creative success or many? If there are many how do we divide it up? For example, if Picasso had the capacity to be a visual artist would he be just as great at drawing, sculpture, and video or is it only a skill that works 2 dimensions? Or perhaps only paint? Perhaps only painting in oils but not acrylics or watercolors? In other words – is creativity domain-specific or domain-general and if so what are the domains?  

Many studies have shown some evidence for multiple domains. If creativity is domain-general, that is 1 ability underlying all creative endeavors, there would be high positive relationships among all creative behaviors. That is, if you gave a sample of people many different creative tasks: writing a poem, creating a meal, testing a scientific hypothesis, painting an emotional experience, writing a short story, knitting a sweater, creating a zen garden, writing a meaningful song, making an educational video, etc., etc., etc. – those performing well on one creative task should perform well on all the others. We typically don’t see this pattern though, causing most creativity researchers to conclude that creativity is more of a domain-specific skill, that is those who are creative in one area may not be creative in others (Baer, 2016). See Creativity Research Journal, Volume 11, Issue 2 (1998) pages 173-182 for a debate on this topic.