Gender and creativity: an overview of psychological and neuroscientific literature

Nurturing environmental champions: exploring the influence of environmental-specific servant leadership on environmental performance in the hospitality industry

This study investigates the impact of environmental-specific servant leadership (ESSL) on environmental performance (EP) in the context of the hospitality industry. It further examines the mediating roles of environmental concern (EC) and employees' pro-social attitude (EPSA) in this relationship. Drawing on a sample of hospitality organizations, data was collected using self-report questionnaires from employees. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data and test the proposed model. The results demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between ESSL and EP in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, the study reveals that EC and EPSA play a mediating role in the relationship between ESSL and EP. The findings highlight the importance of ESSL in driving environmental performance and underscore the significance of fostering EC and EPSA among employees. Organizations can benefit from developing and nurturing ESSL leaders who inspire and motivate employees to embrace sustainability practices and contribute to a more environmentally responsible and sustainable industry.

Individuals with High Metacognitive Ability Are Better at Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Is metacognitive ability a predictor of creative performance? Previous studies have produced conflicting findings. To clarify whether this relationship exists, the current study used eye tracking techniques and vocal thinking reports to explore creativity differences in individuals with different levels of metacognitive ability. One hundred and twelve participants completed the Metacognitive Ability scale, and were divided into two groups (with thirty participants in each group) based on their metacognition scores (the highest and lowest 27% of metacognitive ability scores). Then, participants in both groups completed two creative thinking tasks (AUT and CCRAT) while their eye behaviors were recorded by eye tracking. The results showed that participants with high metacognitive ability were better at divergent thinking, as evidenced by greater fixation and saccade counts, as well as smaller saccade amplitudes in the AUT task. In addition, Bayesian analyses provide anecdotal evidence that participants with high metacognitive ability tended to be better at convergent thinking. Furthermore, eye tracking results demonstrated that they exhibited longer fixation duration and more fixation count on the materials in the CCRAT task. These findings reflect an important role of metacognition in creative thinking, especially in divergent thinking.

Cholinergic-estrogen interaction is associated with the effect of education on attenuating cognitive sex differences in a Thai healthy population

The development of human brain is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. Sex differences in cognitive function have been found in humans as a result of sexual dimorphism in neural information transmission. Numerous studies have reported the positive effects of education on cognitive functions. However, little work has investigated the effect of education on attenuating cognitive sex differences and the neural mechanisms behind it based on healthy population. In this study, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was employed to examine sex differences in cognitive function in 135 Thai healthy subjects, and label-free quantitative proteomic method and bioinformatic analysis were used to study sex-specific neurotransmission-related protein expression profiles. The results showed sex differences in two WCST sub-scores: percentage of Total corrects and Total errors in the primary education group (Bayes factor>100) with males performed better, while such differences eliminated in secondary and tertiary education levels. Moreover, 11 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between men and women (FDR<0.1) were presented in both education groups, with majority of them upregulated in females. Half of those DEPs interacted directly with nAChR3, whereas the other DEPs were indirectly connected to the cholinergic pathways through interaction with estrogen. These findings provided a preliminary indication that a cholinergic-estrogen interaction relates to, and might underpin, the effect of education on attenuating cognitive sex differences in a Thai healthy population.

Disentangling the Link between Diverse Social Networks and Creativity: The Role of Personality Traits

Past studies have shown that being exposed to ethnocultural diversity can positively impact individual creativity. Yet, little is known about the interplay between situational (i.e., diversity) and dispositional (e.g., personality) factors in predicting creativity. Taking a person-situation approach, we use social network data to test the moderating role of personality in the relationship between having an ethnoculturally diverse network and creativity. Moreover, we investigate these questions in a diverse community sample of immigrants residing in the city of Barcelona (N = 122). Moderation analyses revealed that network diversity predicted higher levels of creativity in migrant individuals with medium to high levels of extraversion, and in those with low to medium levels of emotional stability. These results highlight the need to acknowledge the important role played by interacting individual-level dispositions and more objective meso-level contextual conditions in explaining one's ability to think creatively, especially in samples that have traditionally been underrepresented in previous literature.

Women and men have a similar potential for malevolent creativity - But their underlying brain mechanisms are different

Research interest in gender differences in aggression and creative ideation cumulates in the phenomenon of malevolent creativity. Taking another critical step in understanding malevolent creativity, we investigated gender differences in brain activation and functional coupling of cortical sites in the EEG alpha band while n = 88 women and men purposefully generated malevolent creative ideas for taking revenge on others. Results showed that malevolent creativity performance between the genders was similar; however, their underlying EEG patterns were markedly different. While women exhibited a steep decrease of task-related alpha power from frontal to left central-temporal, men's malevolent creative ideation was characterized by a more diffuse pattern of task-related alpha power changes, along with decreased frontal-central coupling. Per interpretation, women's malevolent creative thinking may more strongly rely on controlled semantic memory retrieval and novel re-combination of social/relationship information, while men may utilize more automatic motor-related imagery that may predominantly facilitate physical revenge ideation. Our findings add novel evidence to the idea that women and men engage different neurocognitive strategies to achieve similar creative performance and may help to further illuminate the darker side of creative ideation.

The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach

Cultural innovations, such as tools and other technical articles useful for survival, imply that creativity is an outcome of evolution. However, the existence of purely ornamental items obfuscates the functional value of creativity. What is the functional or adaptive value of aesthetic and intellectual ornaments? Recent evidence shows a connection between ornamental creativity, an individual's attractiveness, and their reproductive success. However, this association is not sufficient for establishing that creativity in humans evolved by sexual selection. In this critical review, we synthesize findings from many disciplines about the mechanisms, ontogeny, phylogeny, and the function of creativity in sexual selection. Existing research indicates that creativity has the characteristics expected of a trait evolved by sexual selection: genetic basis, sexual dimorphism, wider variety in males, influence of sex hormones, dysfunctional expressions, an advantage in mating in humans and other animals, and psychological modules adapted to mating contexts. Future studies should investigate mixed findings in the existing literature, such as creativity not being found particularly attractive in a non-WEIRD society. Moreover, we identified remaining knowledge gaps and recommend that further research should be undertaken in the following areas: sexual and reproductive correlates of creativity in non-WEIRD societies, relationship between androgens, development, and creative expression, as well as the impact of ornamental, technical and everyday creativity on attractiveness. Evolutionary research should analyze whether being an evolved signal of genetic quality is the only way in which creativity becomes sexually selected and therefore passed on from generation to generation. This review has gone a long way toward integrating and enhancing our understanding of ornamental creativity as a possible sexual selected psychological trait.

Creativity and (global, ethnic, host) cultural identifications: An examination in migrant and host national samples

We live in an era of unprecedented interconnectivity and challenges (e.g., climate change, pandemics) that require global mindsets and creative approaches. While research on global identification has increased in recent years, the question of whether it can facilitate creativity remains largely unexplored. Moreover, despite the evidence linking multicultural experiences and global identities, migrant populations have been overly underrepresented in this area of research. We examine the association between global culture identification and creativity in the Alternate Uses Test, across two different samples residing in Spain: a host national and majorly student sample (N = 326) and a culturally diverse immigrant sample (N = 122). Additionally, we test the predictive value of ethnic identification (in both samples) and host culture identification (in the immigrant sample). Regression analyses reveal that global culture identification positively predicts creativity among host national participants, and host culture identification predicts creativity among immigrant participants. Our results suggest that developing a cultural identity that transcends the one acquired through enculturation (i.e., global culture identification for the host national sample, host culture identification for the immigrant sample) has the potential of facilitating creative behavior.

Retrieval flexibility links to creativity: evidence from computational linguistic measure

Creativity, the ability to generate original and valuable products, has long been linked to semantic retrieval processes. The associative theory of creativity posits flexible retrieval ability as an important basis for creative idea generation. However, there is insufficient research on how flexible memory retrieval acts on creative activities. This study aimed to capture different dynamic aspects of retrieval processes and examine the behavioral and neural associations between retrieval flexibility and creativity. We developed 5 metrics to quantify retrieval flexibility based on previous studies, which confirmed the important role of creativity. Our findings showed that retrieval flexibility was positively correlated with multiple creativity-related behavior constructs and can promote distinct search patterns in different creative groups. Moreover, high flexibility was associated with the lifetime of a specific brain state during rest, characterized by interactions among large-scale cognitive brain systems. The flexible functional connectivity within and between default mode, executive control, and salience provides further evidence on brain dynamics of creativity. Retrieval flexibility mediated the links between the lifetime of the related brain state and creativity. This new approach is expected to enhance our knowledge of the role of retrieval flexibility in creativity from a dynamic perspective.

Sexuality and hierarchical trajectories in Global South: A de-colonial reading of Sefi Atta's novel, A Bit of Difference in the exemplification of contemporary literature

A study is made to the created gender dichotomies and the creation of transnational mobility shift in Nigeria's Sefi Atta's novel, A Bit of Difference (2012). Using the novel and related trends, the article seemingly valorizes the dialectics of transnational migration on gender identities in Africa. It examines the critical discourses of feminist configurations, migrations, sexualities in the Global South countries. It constructively examines the consequences of dexterity and trajectory of gender and sexual realities and migration tenets on the cultural matrix of the people. Apparently, the article visualizes the societal tropes of peoples of the global South. It further probes into the obtrusively constructed identities and transnational migration underscoring its attendant consequences on women. It demonstrated how these impeded the exponential development of the Global South or developing countries. Suffice to say, masculine and feminist harmonization have greatly been subjected to transnational endangerment and religious strangulations aiding divergent migration of women. The article foregrounds the coloniality of gender and the polemics of male streaming of the patriarchal power. In these developing nations under examination, women and some queer functionality have not adequately attained the proper attention to advance the plethora and dynamic life events. This have constantly opposedthe polarized and escalated representations of gender proximities in divergent medium of feminization of migration processes. Together with diffuse societal configurations of gender, this article delineatesthe notions of transnational migration and sexualities, hierarchies and the trajectory of women oppression. It also examines the corollary of male genderizations in different obvious speculations. It is a backdrop against sexual prejudice and identity polarization in Global South. The article x-rays decolonial lens and Butler's performativity to re-enact the reconstruction of gender ‘performativity’ and cultural foregrounding ‘beyond the coloniality of gender’ impasse. This will facilitate the development of critical reasoning, social realities and dovetail into the development of men and contextualization of the liberation of the genderized males and females.

Creativity in the Predominantly Inattentive and Combined Presentations of ADHD in Adults

Objective: ADHD and its associated inhibition deficits might promote creativity. However, results in the literature are conflicting, possibly due to the heterogeneity of ADHD. To control for this heterogeneity, creativity, and inhibition were investigated in the predominantly inattentive (ADHD-I) and combined (ADHD-C) presentations. Method: Participants were males/females aged 18 to 51, diagnosed with ADHD-I (n = 21), ADHD-C (n = 19), or without ADHD (n = 43). Self-rated Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale and evaluator-rated figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were used for measuring creativity, Stroop task for inhibition, and Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scales for ADHD symptoms. Results: The ADHD-C group reported higher self-rated creativity than other groups and made more original drawings paired to more abstract titles in the figural TTCT than controls. Conclusion: ADHD-C participants were the most creative. This result was more importantly associated with higher degrees of ADHD symptoms rather than poorer inhibition.

The Mediating and Buffering Effect of Creativity on the Relationship Between Sense of Place and Academic Achievement in Geography

Purpose

This study explored the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography and used a mediation model to verify the mediating role of creativity in this relationship.

Methods

A total of 1,037 upper secondary school students were surveyed using the Sense of Place Scale, the Innovative Behavior Scale, and their geography test scores. SPSS (version 26.0) was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis. The PROCESS plug-in (version 4.0) was used to test the mediating effect of creativity.

Results

(1) The correlation analysis showed that sense of place has a positive effect on academic achievement in geography and is related to creativity. Moreover, creativity exerts a positive effect on academic achievement in geography (2). The results of mediation analysis indicated that creativity plays mediating and buffering roles in the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography after controlling for gender and residential address. The direct and indirect effects accounted for 65.708 and 34.292% of the total effect, respectively.

Conclusions

The results indicated that sense of place affected not only academic achievement in geography directly but also creativity indirectly. This conclusion provides certain ideas for the development of geography curriculums. Since academic achievement in geography is related to both sense of place and creativity, it is necessary to pay more attention to integrating sense of place in geography education and to foster creativity in curriculum development and teaching of geography.

A Systematic Review on FabLab Environments and Creativity: Implications for Design

Fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) and makerspaces are used to transform ideas into tangible products. Used in a design–learning context, they can enhance cognitive and creative skills. Creativity is the pivotal ability to produce innovative outcomes in makerspaces, and several studies have attempted to understand the role of makerspaces and creativity in specific fields. However, a comprehensive study offering a holistic view of the contributions of the makerspaces as built environments that foster creativity is lacking. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review on FabLabs, makerspaces, and creativity to address this research gap. While the review was performed using five major databases, only peer reviewed journal articles were considered. The findings revealed that makerspaces help to develop person, product, physical, and social environments, as well as process aspects of creativity. Moreover, makerspaces induce problem solving, collaborative, and communication skills; they also offer appealing environments and technologies for developing creative solutions to real-life problems. We identified and analysed five major themes dealing with technical skills, technological and environmental elements, STEM learning, and skill development, and elaborated upon their importance for enhancing creativity in FabLab and makerspace environments.

Predominant domains and associated demographic and clinical characteristics in multiple sclerosis-related cognitive impairment in mildly disabled patients

Background

Cognitive impairment (CI) is a common finding in multiple sclerosis (MS); however, there is a limited information about its prevalence in mildly disabled cases. We aimed to determine the most affected domains, and also the relation between the demographic factors and cognitive outcomes in mildly disabled relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS).

Results

Ninety-one mildly disabled RRMS patients with expanded disability status scale (EDSS) < 4 and literacy level above 9 years, were recruited. Based on Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in MS (MACFIMS) battery, CI was observed in 19.8% of the patients while 40.60% of the patients had at least one failure in cognitive tests. The most common impaired cognitive domain was information processing speed and working memory (27.5%). There was no significant difference between men and women in terms of CI in our sample (p-values > 0.05). Disease duration (p = 0.01), EDSS (p = 0.01), and education (p < 0.01) were significantly different between CI and non-CI patients, while age (p = 0.72), sex (p = 0.50), diagnostic gap (p = 0.89), and frequency of relapses (p = 0.22), did not differ considerably.

Conclusions

RRMS patients experience some degrees of CI that may present even before the onset of remarkable physical disability; nevertheless, a higher EDSS score and longer disease duration increases the risk of CI. These findings suggest routine cognitive assessment of MS patients.

Sex-specific intra- and inter-hemispheric structural connectivity related to divergent thinking

Gender differences in creativity partly underscore the diversity between males and females in society. Divergent thinking forms the core of creativity and enables humans to innovate and solve problems. Sex differences in functional activation associated with divergent thinking may reflect the use of distinct strategies in males and females when faced with tasks involving creativity. Although female-specific white matter associated to creativity has been found, fractional anisotropy measuring structural connectivity which can better reflect the degree of brain regions interplay should be adapted to corroborate sex-specific WM connectivity related to divergent thinking. Using fractional anisotropy indexes derived from diffusion tensor imaging in 425 participants (118 males), we observed that divergent thinking was positively associated with fractional anisotropy in the corpus callosum and right superior longitudinal fasciculus in females and was positively associated with fractional anisotropy in the right tapetum in males. Our findings provide insight into sex-specific intra- and inter-hemispheric structural connectivity bases underlying divergent thinking.

Sex influences the brain functional connectivity correlates of originality

Creative cognition is thought to involve two processes, the creation of new ideas and the selection and retention of suitable new ideas. Neuroimaging studies suggest that the Default Mode Network contributes to the creation of new ideas while left inferior frontal and parieto-temporal cortical networks mediate the selection/retention process. Higher levels of activity in the selection/retention have been shown to be associated with stricter criteria for selection and hence the expression of fewer novel ideas. In this study, we examined the brain functional connectivity correlates of an originality score while 27 males and 27 females performed a low and a high demand visual vigilance task. Brain functional connectivity was estimated from the steady state visual evoked potential event related partial coherence. In the male group, we observed a hypothesized left frontal functional connectivity that was negatively correlated with originality in both tasks. By contrast, in the female group no significant correlation between functional connectivity and originality was observed in either task. We interpret the findings to suggest that males and females engaged different functional networks when performing the vigilance tasks. We conclude with a consideration of the possible risks when data pooling across sex in studies of higher cortical function.

Revisiting the Effects of Gender Diversity in Small Groups on Divergent Thinking: A Large-Scale Study Using Synchronous Electronic Brainstorming

Numerous studies have examined the effects of gender diversity in groups on creative performance, and no clear effect has been identified. Findings depend on situational cues making gender diversity more or less salient in groups. A large-scale study on two cohorts (N = 2,261) was conducted among business students to examine the impact of the gender diversity in small groups on divergent thinking in an idea-generation task performed by synchronous electronic brainstorming. Participants were automatically randomized in three- or four-member groups to generate ideas during 10 min on a gendered or neutral task. Then, five categories of groups where the proportion of men/women in groups varied from three/four men to three/four women were compared to examine creative performance on three divergent thinking measures (fluency, flexibility, and originality). A Multivariate Generalized Linear Mixed Model (mGLMM) showed greater fluency in all-women groups than in other groups (except mixed-gender groups composed of two men and two women), and more specifically "solo" groups composed of a single woman/man among a majority of men/women. For flexibility and originality, the superiority of all-women groups was found only in comparison to "solo" groups composed of a single woman. As gender differences are more salient in "solo" groups than in other groups faultlines may appear in groups, leading to a deleterious impact on creative performance.

Conceptual expansion via novel metaphor processing: An ERP replication and extension study examining individual differences in creativity

The aims of the present ERP study were twofold. First, to determine whether a previous study on creative cognition could be replicated, and second, to extend these findings by examining individual differences in creativity. Conceptual expansion, a capacity that is central to creativity, was induced via the processing of novel metaphors. Brain activity patterns in relation to these were compared to the processing of literal and nonsense phrases. The previous findings were replicated in that the N400, known for its sensitivity to semantic anomalies, indexed the originality of the phrases, while a post-N400 late component (LC), which is linked to semantic integration processes, indexed the appropriateness of the phrases. Moreover, only the LC was significantly sensitive to individual differences in creativity in the processing of these phrases. Differences at the level of semantic integration processes as well as the structure of knowledge organization are thereby implicated in individual differences in creativity.

Naming unrelated words predicts creativity

Many traditional measures of creativity require time-intensive and subjective scoring procedures. Their scores are relative to the specific sample, which makes multicultural or international assessments difficult. Our results show that a shorter and simpler task with automatic and objective scoring may be at least as reliable at measuring verbal creativity. This finding enables assessments across larger and more diverse samples with less bias.

Several theories posit that creative people are able to generate more divergent ideas. If this is correct, simply naming unrelated words and then measuring the semantic distance between them could serve as an objective measure of divergent thinking. To test this hypothesis, we asked 8,914 participants to name 10 words that are as different from each other as possible. A computational algorithm then estimated the average semantic distance between the words; related words (e.g., cat and dog) have shorter distances than unrelated ones (e.g., cat and thimble). We predicted that people producing greater semantic distances would also score higher on traditional creativity measures. In Study 1, we found moderate to strong correlations between semantic distance and two widely used creativity measures (the Alternative Uses Task and the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap Task). In Study 2, with participants from 98 countries, semantic distances varied only slightly by basic demographic variables. There was also a positive correlation between semantic distance and performance on a range of problems known to predict creativity. Overall, semantic distance correlated at least as strongly with established creativity measures as those measures did with each other. Naming unrelated words in what we call the Divergent Association Task can thus serve as a brief, reliable, and objective measure of divergent thinking.

Assessment of gender divide in scientific communities

Increasing evidence of women’s under-representation in some scientific disciplines is prompting researchers to expand our understanding of this social phenomenon. Moreover, any countermeasures proposed to eliminate this under-representation should be tailored to the actual reasons for this different participation. Here, we take a multi-dimensional approach to assessing gender differences in science by representing scientific communities as social networks, and using data analytics, complexity science methods, and semantic methods to measure gender differences in the context, the attitude and the success of scientists. We apply this approach to four scientific communities in the two fields of computer science and information systems using the network of authors at four different conferences. For each discipline, one conference is based in Italy and attracts mostly Italians, while one conference is international in both location and participants. The present paper provides evidence against common narratives that women’s under-representation is due to women’s limited skills and/or less social centrality.

Gender Differences in the Distribution of Creativity Scores: Domain-Specific Patterns in Divergent Thinking and Creative Problem Solving

The present study examined gender differences in the distribution of creative abilities through the lens of the greater male variability hypothesis, which postulated that men showed greater interindividual variability than women in both physical and psychological attributes (Ellis, 1894/1934). Two hundred and six (51.9% female) undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed two creativity measures that evaluated different aspects of creativity, including: (a) a divergent thinking test that aimed to assess idea generation and (b) a creative problem-solving test that aimed to assess restructuring ability. The present findings extended the research of greater male variability in creativity by showing that men generally exhibited greater variance than women in the overall distribution of the creativity scores in both divergent thinking and creative problem solving, despite trivial gender differences in mean scores. The findings further enriched the discourse of the greater male variability hypothesis by showing interesting domain-specific gendered patterns: (1) greater male variability was more likely to occur in figural forms of creativity, with larger effect sizes, when compared to the variability in verbal forms of creativity; and (2) mixed gendered patterns were found in the upper tails of the creativity score distribution with respect to the verbal domain but not the figural one, despite greater male representation being consistently observed in the lower tail of the distribution. Possible underlying mechanisms and implications were discussed.

Preference for Complexity and Asymmetry Contributes to an Ability to Overcome Structured Imagination: Implications for Creative Perception Paradigm

The study is a part of a research project, which explores the role of creative perception in creative behavior. We operationalized creative behavior as an ability to overcome structured imagination, as measured by the Invented Alien Creature test, and operationalized creative perception as a preference for complexity and asymmetry, which we assessed using a standard Barron–Welsh Art Scale. Our group of participants was composed of ninety-three undergraduate students from the United Arab Emirates. The degree to which one preferred complexity and asymmetry measurably contributed to their ability to overcome structured imagination. This finding adds another brick to the rising seventh pillar of the creativity construct, namely, creative perception. The article provides a first sketch of the creative perception paradigm.

Gender Differences in Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract In order to understand trends reported in research carried out about gender differences in creativity, a systematic review of the scientific literature on the electronic databases Scielo, Pepsic, CAPES Periodicals, Academic Search Premier, Academic Search Elite, Redalyc, and MEDLINE Complete was held. The 133 publications analysis showed that the articles were published between 1975 and 2020, most of them of international origin (82.71%). Most studies reported gender differences, with 45.20% in favor of women. Another 23.28% in favor of men, and 31.50%, oscillating according to the content evaluated. There was no consensus on the issue since inconsistent results were found, sometimes indicating the predominance of better results achieved by women, sometimes by men, in the same measures. This finding reinforces the importance that studies of this nature consider the influence of other factors, such as attitudes, motivation, opportunities, and the type of measure used to establish more accurate results.

Gender of partner affects the interaction pattern during group creative idea generation

This study aimed to determine how gender composition affects the group creative process. Participants were recruited into dyads with different gender compositions (female-male dyad, F-M; female-female, F-F; male-male, and M-M) to solve two problems. One problem demanded creativity alternative use task (AUT) and the other did not object characteristic task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning was used to record interpersonal neural responses. Results demonstrated no significant difference in creative performance among the three types of dyads. However, the F-F dyad showed higher levels of cooperative behaviour (i.e. the index of convergence) and collective flexibility than the other dyads. Also, in the fNIRS data, the F-F dyad showed higher interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) increments in the right posterior parietal cortex during the AUT than the other dyads, which covaried with their creative performance. These findings indicate that while solving a creativity problem together, females are more likely than males to consider others' perspectives. This gender difference might be due to the enhanced IBS increment in the right posterior parietal cortex.

Transcending utility? The gendered conflicts of a contemporary creative identification

The late 20th and early 21st centuries have been described as an age of creativity in affluent Western societies because of the increased popularity of the visual arts and the expansion of the global sector of the creative and cultural industries (CCI). The psychology of creativity has contributed new conceptualisations of creativity and creative processes, challenging associations that derive from the elite arts. This article investigates the implications of these changes for the gendering of creativity and creative practice. It asks if contemporary reconceptualisations of creativity open new possibilities for women to identify as creative practitioners. The article presents a critical discursive study of interviews with UK women maker-artists. The analysis shows how the women emphasise the practical applications or utility of their creative practice. A claim of utility can function to justify the practice. In addition, a claim of therapeutic utility, for others and for the artist herself, potentially addresses the neoliberal priority that people take responsibility for their personal well-being. However, the justification of utility contrasts with the creative vocation associated with the masculine elite artist who pursues “art for art’s sake”. The justification can therefore be seen to undermine the women’s creative identifications, reinstating the conventionally masculine status of creativity and the arts.

Gender differences in parieto-frontal brain functional connectivity correlates of creativity

INTRODUCTION

Creativity is a complex construct that lies at the core of what has made human civilizations possible. One frequently used measure of creativity is the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults that yields an overall creativity score. In this study, we examine the relationship between the task-related differences in brain functional connectivity and the creativity score in a male and female group of participants.

METHODS

Brain functional connectivity was estimated from the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) event-related partial coherence in a group of 27 females and 27 males while they performed a low-demand visual vigilance task and the A-X version of the Continuous Performance Task. Task-related differences in brain functional connectivity (ΔFC) were correlated with the creativity score separately in the female and male groups.

RESULTS

We found that the creativity score was correlated with a parieto-frontal ΔFC component for both the female and male groups. However, significant gender differences were observed in both the timing and the laterality of the parietal component. Females exhibited a left parietal to bilateral frontal ΔFC component correlated with creativity score and this peaked on the appearance of a target in both tasks. By contrast, males demonstrated a right parietal to bilateral frontal ΔFC component correlated with creativity score which peaked on the appearance of the letter following the targets.

CONCLUSION

These findings are discussed in the context of the role of the Default Mode Network in creativity, and the role of gender-related differences in cortical networks that mediate creativity.

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses

The relationship between sex and creativity remains an unresolved research question. The present study aimed to approach this question through the lens of the developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence, which posits a dynamic pattern of sex differences in intellectual abilities from female superiority in childhood and early adolescence to male superiority starting at 16 years of age. A total of 775 participants from three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults) completed a 4-year longitudinal study comprising four assessments of creative thinking at 1-year intervals. Creative thinking was assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production. While the results revealed female superiority in childhood and early adolescence, male superiority was not found in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Rather, greater sex similarities and greater male variability were found based on mean and variability analyses, respectively. This study elucidated the link between sex and creativity by (1) taking a developmental perspective, (2) employing a 4-year longitudinal design in three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults), and (3) analyzing sex differences based on both mean and variability analyses.

Self-construals moderate associations between trait creativity and social brain network

Creativity is an adaptive way of thinking and plays a key role in problem solving. Recent brain imaging studies focused on structural and functional characteristics of the brain that are correlated with creativity. But whether and how the association between creativity and the brain is moderated by individuals' cultural traits remains unclear. We integrated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and questionnaire measures (Williams creativity aptitude test) of trait creativity and self-construal (e.g., interdependence) in male adults to examine whether trait creativity is associated with neural activities underlying social cognition and whether and how the association is moderated by individuals' self-construals. We found that interdependence moderates the association between trait creativity and neural activities in the left superior temporal sulcus, right anterior insular, right temporal-parietal junction and right precentral gyrus engaged in reflection of one's own social attributes. Interdependence also moderates the association between trait creativity and neural activities in the left superior temporal sulcus and right posterior insular involved in reflection of a friend's social attributes. The link of trait creativity and the functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and postcentral gyri during reflection of a friend's social attributes is also moderated by interdependence. Participants with high and low creativity traits can be dissociated in a three-dimension space defined by integration of interdependence and the brain activity underlying reflection of one's own and the friend's attributes. Our findings suggest that trait creativity is imprinted on the social brain and the link between trait creativity and the neural activities underlying the processing of self and others is moderated by a cultural trait.

Creative females have larger white matter structures: Evidence from a large sample study

The importance of brain connectivity for creativity has been theoretically suggested and empirically demonstrated. Studies have shown sex differences in creativity measured by divergent thinking (CMDT) as well as sex differences in the structural correlates of CMDT. However, the relationships between regional white matter volume (rWMV) and CMDT and associated sex differences have never been directly investigated. In addition, structural studies have shown poor replicability and inaccuracy of multiple comparisons over the whole brain. To address these issues, we used the data from a large sample of healthy young adults (776 males and 560 females; mean age: 20.8 years, SD = 0.8). We investigated the relationship between CMDT and WMV using the newest version of voxel-based morphometry (VBM). We corrected for multiple comparisons over whole brain using the permutation-based method, which is known to be quite accurate and robust. Significant positive correlations between rWMV and CMDT scores were observed in widespread areas below the neocortex specifically in females. These associations with CMDT were not observed in analyses of fractional anisotropy using diffusion tensor imaging. Using rigorous methods, our findings further supported the importance of brain connectivity for creativity as well as its female-specific association. Hum Brain Mapp 38:414-430, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Creative Activities in Music--A Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis

Creative activities in music represent a complex cognitive function of the human brain, whose biological basis is largely unknown. In order to elucidate the biological background of creative activities in music we performed genome-wide linkage and linkage disequilibrium (LD) scans in musically experienced individuals characterised for self-reported composing, arranging and non-music related creativity. The participants consisted of 474 individuals from 79 families, and 103 sporadic individuals. We found promising evidence for linkage at 16p12.1-q12.1 for arranging (LOD 2.75, 120 cases), 4q22.1 for composing (LOD 2.15, 103 cases) and Xp11.23 for non-music related creativity (LOD 2.50, 259 cases). Surprisingly, statistically significant evidence for linkage was found for the opposite phenotype of creative activity in music (neither composing nor arranging; NCNA) at 18q21 (LOD 3.09, 149 cases), which contains cadherin genes like CDH7 and CDH19. The locus at 4q22.1 overlaps the previously identified region of musical aptitude, music perception and performance giving further support for this region as a candidate region for broad range of music-related traits. The other regions at 18q21 and 16p12.1-q12.1 are also adjacent to the previously identified loci with musical aptitude. Pathway analysis of the genes suggestively associated with composing suggested an overrepresentation of the cerebellar long-term depression pathway (LTD), which is a cellular model for synaptic plasticity. The LTD also includes cadherins and AMPA receptors, whose component GSG1L was linked to arranging. These results suggest that molecular pathways linked to memory and learning via LTD affect music-related creative behaviour. Musical creativity is a complex phenotype where a common background with musicality and intelligence has been proposed. Here, we implicate genetic regions affecting music-related creative behaviour, which also include genes with neuropsychiatric associations. We also propose a common genetic background for music-related creative behaviour and musical abilities at chromosome 4.