5 Year Olds Are Creative Geniuses — You Can Be Too — PILGRIM SOUL

There lies a common misconception that creativity is intrinsic. That creative geniuses are simply born with an astounding predisposition for a heightened creative output. However, modern research has failed to prove that creativity is genetic and many creative geniuses, across industries, attribute their creative achievements not to a natural born gift, but rather to hard-work and resilience.

Although creativity remains elusive and difficult to measure, Dr. George Land and Dr. Beth Jarman successfully developed a test meant to measure the test takers’ creative potential and capacity for divergent thinking, a free flowing, ‘non-linear’ thought process that promotes idea creation and problem solving. Originally developed in order to help NASA find the most innovative scientists and engineers, the test was later repurposed and given to children over a span of a decade.

The children of this study were first tested at the ages of 5, then again at 10, and 15 years old. Beginning at the age of 5, the results of Land and Jarman’s creativity test suggested that 98% of 5-year old children were creative geniuses capable of divergent thinking that is free of judgement. However, by the age of 10, only 30% retested at a creative genius level and by 15, only 12% qualified to be creative geniuses. A fourth test was then…