Answer: The natural creativity exhibited in children allows them to draw fantastic creatures that most of us see as, for lack of a better word, childish. In this article by Sam McNerney entitled, “Killing Creativity: Why Kids Draw Pictures of Monsters & Adults Don’t” , he explores how all of us could improve our creativity by adapting a childlike mindset.
Age doesn’t necessarily squander our creative juices, but when we make the leap from elementary school to middle school our worldview becomes more realistic and cynical. The question is: what did Jobs and Spielberg do differently? How do we maintain our naiveté?
A study conducted several years ago by Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson of North Dakota State University gives us a simple remedy. The psychologists divided a large group of undergraduates into two groups. The first group was given the following prompt:
You are 7 years old. School is canceled, and you have the entire day to yourself. What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you see?
The second group was given the same prompt minus the first sentence. This means they don’t imagine themselves as seven years olds – they remain in their adult mindset.
Next, the psychologists asked their subjects to take ten minutes to write a response. Afterwards the subjects were given various tests of creativity, such as inventing alternatives uses for an old tire, or completing incomplete sketches. (As well as other tasks from the Torrance test of creativity.) Zabelina and Robinson found that, “individuals [in] the mindset condition involving childlike thinking… exhibited higher levels of creative originally than did those in the control condition.” This effect was especially pronounced with subjects who identify themselves as introverts.
What happens to our innate creativity when we age? Zabelina and Robinson discuss a few reasons. The first is that regions of the frontal cortex – a part of the brain responsible for rule-based behavior – are not fully developed until our teenage years. This means that when we are young our thoughts are free-flowing and without inhibitions; curiosity, not logic and reason, guides our intellectual musings. The second is that current educational practices discourage creativity.
Check out Sam McNerney’s full article here.