It has been the most popular debate of all times, especially recently as the world has become more fast-paced; with creativity gaining laudability and encouragement on all platforms.
To support this debate, many scientific research undergone, with creativity and creative thinking held subjective to being an inherited trait or an acquired skill. While the popular opinion remains that creativity is a blend of some of the inborn skills and being intentional, many research concluded it be more inclined towards being genetically inherited.
Where Creativity Comes From?
Creativity can be described to be characterized as a blend of genetics, environmental impact and influence, and application of schooled skills. With every individual inherently creative in one way or the other, the question still remains that how much of the creativity we possess or the creativity we exhibit, can be held attributable to nature and how much of it is hardwired in our genes.
Many scientific and creative communities have had this argument about the unavailability of any hardcore evidence to come to a unanimous decision about where creativity really stems from. Many of them have drawn rather distinguished perspectives in turn to spot and address the contrasting facets of the creativity conundrum. Numerous figures of creative geniuses have elapsed in numerous civilisations forward since the beginning of time. Scientists from different countries insist that to a great extent, creativity is determined by our DNA greater than the creativity we acquired by skills learnt.
One recent study conducted in PLoS ONE, observed the musical creativity of participants based on their ability to gauge pitch and time, along with several vital skills of composing the music, while improvising and arranging it. This study of genetics the participants, scientists were able to conclude that it was the presence of certain genes in few participants that directly correlated with musical creativity; making some of them perform better than the rest.
This cluster of genes, associated with a gene family involved in the plasticity of the brain, making it responsible for the brain’s ability to break and form new connections between cells within the brain.
Creativity still finds itself largely about divergent thinking, describing such notions and thought processes that assist in the generation of creative ideas through exploration of many possible methods. Thinking out the box as we like to call it.
With no reliable or proven conclusions made on any of the researches so far, it is safe to say that creativity is a result of both inborn and schooled skills. It could be a genetic phenomenon and the skills acquired through hours of practice at the same time to perfect your level of creativity.
Take the example of a painter who through his whirling carousel of creativity produces wonderful painting. Or look at the achievements of a scientist or a mathematician, who produce their own formulas, often innovative in their own right, and not simply on the output but the innate ability to tap into the neurological potential for creativity and give it a doorway into our world through consistent application. Creativity is something we all have, learn, and potentially unlearn at various stages of our journey in life because of the boundaries that we learn to restrict on our thought processes which in turn hinders our ability to be creative.