Creative people see the world differently

What is a creative work by an artist painting or piece of music, inducing in us a sense of admiration and inspiration? This is all from a simple desire to show us something new, something different, or is it man's expression that he saw himself an artist and are unable to see other people? As once said Pablo Picasso: "Some see what is and ask why. I see what could be and ask why not?". The basic idea of this statement is that some people see things around them more opportunities than others. And that is the Central element of the concept of creativity.

When testing the creative abilities of psychologists often use tests of divergent thinking. For example, people are told to think of as many ways to use for the simplest things, like ordinary bricks. If a person is able to come up with many variants and combinations of conventional bricks (up to the creation of the lid of the coffin for a Barbie doll), then the test will show that such a person will be significantly higher divergent thinking than one who believes that the bricks can only be used for the solution of common tasks like building walls and buildings.

According to the same research, openness to experience, or simply openness to experience is the aspect of our personality, which stimulates our creativity. Among the five major traits of human personality (extroversion-introversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience) openness of the best are able to predict our efficiency in performing tasks on divergent thinking.

As pointed out by American psychologists Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire in his book "Wired to Create," the urge to be creative people "comes from the desire for cognitive studies of their own world and the world around." Curiosity is a comprehensive study of certain things can lead to an increase in the level of openness of a person to see the world around him different, compared with the average people. Or, as other researchers of this issue, "the ability to see the range of possibilities lying unnoticed in the so-called well-established "familiar environment" for other people".

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Creative vision

In the study, the results of which were published in the scientific journal journal of Research in Personality, says that open-minded people not simply try to see things from the other parties and to Express their point of view, such people really do see the world around them differently, compared to ordinary people.

Experts wanted to find out if between openness and the phenomenon of binoculare competition, any connection. This phenomenon occurs when each eye is simultaneously presented with two different images, for example, card red and green card. When you view both images an observer for the latter will create a visual effect in which a card is shown to one eye, as if to go to the other eye and Vice versa. That is, at some point, it would seem that both eyes see green, red background.

Interestingly, for some participants this experiment may seem that both the background either merge or are superimposed on one another, creating a structured image, as can be seen on the main picture above. And here are the highlights binoculares suppression when both images are visible simultaneously, can be explained as an attempt of consciousness to find a "creative" solution to the problem presented in the form of a totally different visual stimuli (cards with different background color in this case).

In the course of experiments the researchers found that open people are able to see, merging or intersecting image for a longer period of time, compared with the average people. Moreover, the effect continues even longer, if a person at this point, there is a good mood, which, according to earlier studies, also plays an important role for creativity. Based on these observations, the researchers concluded that creativity open people extend all the way to the base of visual perception. Such open and people are able to experience the fundamentally different visual experience compared to the average person.

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See what others do not notice

Another well-known phenomenon called perceptual blindness inattention. People can experience when focused on something so much that literally cease to notice other things right before their eyes.

A Perfect example of this failure of perception is an experiment in which people are asked to watch a short video. A few people throw each other a basketball. The observer task is to count the number of passes between players wearing white.

Before reading further, can test your perception.

At some point, right in the center of the frame there is a man in a gorilla suit and then leaves. You noticed him? If not, don't worry, you're not alone. About half of the 192 members of the original study also didn't notice the man in the gorilla suit. But why some people suffer inattention blindness and others are not?

The Answer to this question appeared only thanks to recent studies that show that susceptibility to blindness of inattention depends on your personality. And open people are more likely to notice the gorilla in the frame. Again, from this we can conclude that the more visual information enters the process of conscious perception of the world, people are more open – they are able to see what others do not notice.

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to Open your mind. And is it necessary?

It May seem that open-minded people have more opportunities than others. But can people that have not a creative personality characteristics, to expand these opportunities? And do you need it?

There is strong evidence that personality you can build, sculpt like clay and make the way you want. To increase the openness of perception occurs, for example, after the specialized cognitive training with the use of the substance psilocybin (a chemical compound found in some hallucinogenic mushrooms). If we talk about less radical examples, raising the level of transparency often seen in students studying abroad, which only reaffirms the view that the trips help to expand your consciousness.

But in fact, "openness of mind" not all as rosy as it might seem at first glance. Psychologists often associated with openness to certain aspects of mental illness, particularly with the increased tendency to hallucinations. Between the ability to see more and the ability to see what is not there, there is a very fine line. In General, the existence of a variety of personalities — that's good. It is important to remember: the point of view of one person will not necessarily be better the point of view of another.

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