Why Creative People Really See the World Differently
When one shows people a brick, the first thing that comes to their mind is a brick wall. But there are an exceptional few who could think of other uses for bricks, such as using it as a candle holder, paper weight, balloon weight, stands to elevate heavy objects, and bookends, all at the same time.
These individuals who usually think out of the box are referred to as the creative lot — people who have a general appreciation for artistic endeavors, adventure, curiosity, imagination, and emotion. They tend to physically see and process the world differently. Their open personality allows them to notice things that others miss.
This knack to perceive the world in a different way was the focus of study by two Australian psychologists. Luke Smillie and Anna Antinori of the University of Melbourne gathered 123 students and subjected them to a binocular rivalry test wherein each of them was made to stare at two images simultaneously.
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The right eye was made to see a red patch and the left a green one for two minutes. The scenario confused most of the volunteers who reported seeing the images flip intermittently from one to the other and change between red and green. This is normal because the brain can only perceive one image at a time.
But some subjects saw the two images fused into a patchwork of red and green — a phenomenon known as "mixed percept." The researchers found that people with open personalities were more likely to have a mixed perception. This means that creative-minded people can process more visual information and combine it in a unique way.
Another psychologist named Frank X. Barron conducted his own research in the 1960s and concluded that creative people possess an openness to one's inner life; a preference for complexity and ambiguity; an unusually high tolerance for disorder and disarray; the ability to extract order from chaos, independence, and unconventionality; and a willingness to take risks.
