2023-08-29 18:00:05
“The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)”, by René Magritte (1898-1967), at the Center Pompidou, in Paris, in 2016. IAN LANGSDON / EPA / MAXPPP
Where does our creativity come from? If the myth is that we have to let our thoughts wander to bring out our ideas, for neuroscientists, flashes of genius like “Eureka! ” do not exist. The creative process is the result of complex mechanisms involving distinct brain networks. Far, therefore, from the popular idea of an innovative illumination.
But how, among all the ideas bubbling in our minds, do we select the best ones? And how does this influence our degree of creativity? This is the question that Inserm researchers from the Brain Institute in Paris have tried to answer by studying individual preferences to assess our creative ideas. The results of the study, published on August 14 in the journal American Psychologistshow that the most creative individuals are those who attach great importance to the originality of their ideas, without neglecting their relevance.
“In neuroscience, we consider that we evaluate our creativity according to these two criteriaexplain Alizée Lopez-Persemneuroscientist in charge of the study. Our research consisted of knowing the role of our individual preferences on our creativity, that is to say, knowing how creative we are depending on whether we give importance to the originality or the relevance of our ideas in the evaluation process. »
Tests d’association libre
The researchers first carried out a behavioral study on seventy-one participants. Their first task was to perform free association tests. They were offered a word, to which they had to associate another; first the first that came to mind, before formulating an association that they considered creative. For example, when asked about the word “mother”, many participants first associated the word “father”. Looking for a more creative association, some answered “school”. The participants were then invited to evaluate their appreciation of these associations of ideas, as well as their degree of originality and relevance. The word “school”, in response to the word “mother”, was for example evaluated as an association that was both original and relevant. Finally, everyone had to perform a standardized creativity test, in order to establish the profile of each participant.
An approach of individualization of the processes that praises Sylvie Chokronneuroscientist at the CNRS and collaborator of the “Science & medicine” notebook, who did not participate in the study: « Often, the models that try to describe operating modes average the processes, they standardize them. This study is important because it highlights neurodiversity, that is to say the fact of having different individuals, who will therefore not have the same preferences. »
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