What is a creative work - an artist's painting or a piece of music that evokes in us a feeling of admiration and inspiration? Is this all from a simple desire to show us something new, something different, or is it a man's desire to express what the artist saw himself and could not see other people? As Pablo Picasso once said: "Some see that there is, and they ask why. I see that there could be, and I ask "why not?" ". The main idea of this statement is that some people see in the surrounding things more opportunities than others. And this is the central link in the concept of creativity.
When checking creative abilities, psychologists often resort to tests for divergent thinking. For example, a person is told to come up with as many ways of using as possible for the simplest things, like ordinary bricks. If a person is able to come up with a variety of options and combinations of using conventional bricks (up to the creation of a coffin lid for the Barbie doll), then the test will show that this person will have a much more developed divergent thinking than those who believe that bricks can be used only for the solution of ordinary tasks like the construction of walls and buildings.
According to the same studies, openness to experiences or simply openness to new experiences is the aspect of our personality that stimulates our creativity. Among the five basic features of a person's personality (extraversion-introversion, benevolence, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), it is openness that can best predict our effectiveness in performing tasks for divergent thinking.
As pointed out by American psychologists, Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire in his book "Wired to Create", the desire for creativity in people "comes from the desire to cognitive research of their own world and the world around." The curiosity of a comprehensive study of certain things can lead to an increase in the level of the person's openness of seeing the world around him different in comparison with the average people. Or, as other researchers of this question say, "the ability to see a set of opportunities that are not noticed in the so-called established" familiar environment "for other people."
Creative Vision
The study, published in the scientific journal Journal of Research in Personality, says that open people do not just try to see things from their other sides and thus express their point of view, such people actually really see the world around them otherwise, compared to ordinary people.
The specialists wanted to find out whether there is any connection between openness and such a phenomenon as a binocular competition. This phenomenon occurs when two different images are simultaneously represented for each eye, for example, a red card and a green card. When viewing both images, the observer for the latter will create a visual effect, in which the card shown for one eye will, as it were, go into the other eye and vice versa. That is, at some point it will seem that both eyes see something green, then a red background.
Interestingly, for some participants of such an experiment it may seem that both backgrounds either merge, or one overlaps another, creating a certain structured image, as can be seen in the central picture above. And such moments of binocular suppression, when both images become visible simultaneously, can be explained as an attempt of consciousness to find a "creative" solution to the problem presented in the form of completely different visual stimuli (cards with different background colors in this case).
In the experiments, the researchers found that open people can see merging or intersecting images for a longer period of time, compared to the average people. Moreover, the effect lasts even longer if the person at that moment has a good mood, which, according to earlier studies, also plays an important role for creativity. Based on these observations, the researchers concluded that the creative abilities of open people extend right up to the basic visual perception. And such open people are able to experience a fundamentally different visual experience, compared with the average person.
See what others do not notice
Another known phenomenon of perception is called blindness of inattention. People can experience it when they are focused on something so much that they literally stop noticing other things right before their eyes.
An excellent example of this failure of perception is an experiment in which people are asked to watch a short video. On it, several people throw basketballs to each other. Before the observer the task is to calculate the number of passes between players dressed in white.
Before you read on, you can independently test your perception.
At some point right in the center of the frame appears a man in a gorilla costume, and then leaves. Have you noticed it? If not, do not worry, you are not alone in this. About half of the 192 participants in the original study also did not notice the person in the gorilla costume. But why do some people experience blindness inattention, while others do not?
The answer to this question has appeared only thanks to recent studies, the results of which show that the susceptibility to blindness of inattention depends on your individuality. And open people are more likely to notice the gorilla in the frame. Again, one can conclude from this that more visual information penetrates the process of conscious perception of the surrounding world in people more open - they are able to see what others do not notice.
Open your mind. And whether it is necessary?
It may seem that open people have more opportunities than others. But can people, who initially possess non-creative personality characteristics, expand these opportunities? And is it really necessary?
There is convincing evidence that the personality can be built, blinded as clay and made as you want. Increased openness of perception is observed, for example, after specialized cognitive training with the use of psilocybin substance (a chemical compound present in some hallucinogenic fungi). If we talk about less radical examples, then the increase in the level of openness is often observed among students studying abroad, which only once again confirms the view that travel helps to expand your consciousness.
But in fact, in the "openness of consciousness" not everything is as rosy as it may seem at first glance. Psychologists often associate openness with certain aspects of mental illness, in particular with an increased tendency to hallucinations. Between the ability to see more and the ability to see what is not there is a very fine line. In general, the presence of a diversity of personalities is good. It is important to remember: one person's point of view will not necessarily be better than another's point of view.
The article is based on materials .
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