We often hear similar phrases to: "Children start out with an innate ability to be creative until the education system educates it out of them." But is that true for all children? Is it indeed different for boys and girls? Does physiology determine our ability to come up with ideas or is it a socialised ability?
The Ideo team brought in a group of seven year olds to brainstorm around a new toy.
They then put the boys in a separate space from the girls.
After an hour they discovered that the boys came up with around 50 ideas. The girls delivered over 200!
Why?
Apparently the boys were less collaborative. Shouting over each other and focussing on their own ideas. The girls however were more inclined to listen and build on each others ideas.
The benefits of collaboration are obvious but perhaps the consequences of competition not so.
The reason for the boys producing less ideas may be that if we feel we are in competition with others our survival instincts kick in, together with the need to win. As a result our cortisol levels may rise and the feeling of stress can both diminish our ability to surface ideas and our willingness to collaborate. In fact research has shown that an increase in stress hormones can cause tunnel vision.
However if we feel heard and supported we are more inclined to feel relaxed and encouraged to offer ideas freely.
Clearly women can be equally as competitive as men and men have the capacity to be highly collaborative.
So perhaps the question about creative thinking and idea generation is less about whether we are more creative as children and more about: "How much do emotions, gender roles, chemistry and environments determine the outcome of a brainstormimg session?"
The research continues!
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