Openness to Experience and Intellect Differentially Predict Creative Achievement in the Arts and Sciences

TLDR

The Big Five trait Openness/Intellect is most linked to creativity, yet the distinct roles of its facets—Openness to Experience and Intellect—are poorly understood. In four diverse samples of 1,035 participants, we examined how Openness and Intellect independently predict creative achievement in the arts and sciences. We assessed relationships among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across arts and sciences. Openness predicts artistic creativity, Intellect predicts scientific creativity, and Extraversion independently predicts artistic creativity; Intellect’s association with science may be partly due to general cognitive ability and divergent thinking.

Abstract

The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of its two aspects-Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with perception, fantasy, aesthetics, and emotions) and Intellect (reflecting cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information, primarily through reasoning)-in relation to creativity. In four demographically diverse samples totaling 1,035 participants, we investigated the independent predictive validity of Openness and Intellect by assessing the relations among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across the arts and sciences. We confirmed the hypothesis that whereas Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences. Inclusion of performance measures of general cognitive ability and divergent thinking indicated that the relation of Intellect to scientific creativity may be due at least in part to these abilities. Lastly, we found that Extraversion additionally predicted creative achievement in the arts, independently of Openness. Results are discussed in the context of dual-process theory.