Creativity (🇬🇧/🇺🇸)

Creativity is one of the most discussed, desired, and paradoxically least understood human capacities. It is present in education, science, business, culture, technology, and everyday life. Even so, the term is often reduced to “having good ideas,” “inspiration,” or “artistic talent.”

This article has a clear objective: to present creativity based on what science knows about it, bringing together the main researchers in the field, their definitions, the most recurring concepts, and a rigorous conceptual synthesis.
It also serves as an entry point for those who wish to learn more about the ecosystem of the World Creativity Organization, the World Creativity Day, and the WCO Members community.

Creativity as a scientific object

Since the mid-twentieth century, creativity has ceased to be treated only as an artistic or philosophical gift and has come to be studied systematically, mainly by Psychology, with contributions from education, sociology, neuroscience, and organizational sciences.

The turning point occurs in 1950, when J. P. Guilford proposes that creativity can and should be investigated scientifically. From that moment on, a robust field known as the Psychology of Creativity emerges.

The main thinkers of Creativity and their definitions

Below, we bring together 20 of the most influential and productive researchers in the field, with definitions faithful to the original meaning of their works, presented in a clear and accessible way.

1. J. P. Guilford
   Creativity is the capacity for divergent thinking, that is, generating multiple original solutions to the same problem.
2. E. Paul Torrance
   Creativity is a process of identifying problems, formulating hypotheses, testing them, and communicating new results.
3. Teresa M. Amabile
   Creativity is the production of ideas that are new and appropriate, resulting from the interaction between skills, processes, and intrinsic motivation.
4. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
   Creativity is a systemic phenomenon that emerges from the interaction between the individual, the domain, and the social field.
5. Howard Gardner
   Creativity is the ability to solve problems or create products that are valued within a specific cultural domain.
6. Robert J. Sternberg
   Creativity is a deliberate decision to invest in new ideas that are not yet valued.
7. Mark A. Runco
   Creativity is the generation of original ideas, regardless of immediate recognition.
8. Dean Keith Simonton
   Creativity is the production of original variations that survive social and historical selection.
9. Ruth Richards
   Creativity is a healthy expression of human adaptation, present in everyday life.
10. Todd Lubart
    Creativity results from the interaction between cognition, personality, motivation, and environment, producing something new and appropriate.
11. James C. Kaufman
    Creativity is a multilevel phenomenon, ranging from personal meaning (mini-c) to recognized genius (Big-C).
12. Scott Barry Kaufman
    Creativity is the expression of human potential, linked to imagination and psychological growth.
13. Arthur J. Cropley
    Creativity is the production of new, effective, and responsible solutions, especially in applied contexts.
14. Vlad Petre Glăveanu
    Creativity is a sociocultural practice, constructed through relationships, norms, and artifacts.
15. Silvia B. C. Madjar
    Creativity is the generation of new and useful ideas in organizational contexts, influenced by emotions and relationships.
16. Ronald A. Beghetto
    Creativity is the construction of new meaning for the individual, even without external validation.
17. Beth Hennessey
    Creativity flourishes in environments that foster autonomy, curiosity, and intrinsic motivation.
18. Anna Abraham
    Creativity emerges from the interaction between neural networks of imagination and cognitive control.
19. Steven M. Smith
    Creativity involves the ability to overcome cognitive fixations.
20. Sarnoff Mednick
    Creativity is the formation of remote associations between ideas.

The words that structure the concept of Creativity

By analyzing all these definitions, it is possible to identify the most recurring terms in the scientific field.

Table of keywords and recurrence among authors

Central concept | Authors
New, novelty, originality | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20
Ideas | 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 18
Problems and solutions | 2, 5, 6, 13
Process | 2, 3, 10, 18
Context, domain, culture | 4, 5, 10, 14
Value, utility, appropriateness | 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15
Intrinsic motivation | 3, 12, 17
Cognition and associations | 1, 10, 18, 19, 20
Social evaluation | 4, 8
Personal meaning | 9, 11, 16

The scientific consensus is clear: creativity is not only novelty, but novelty that makes sense within a human context.

The synthesis definition of Creativity

Based exclusively on these recurring terms, we arrive at the following integrative definition:

Creativity is the cognitive, motivational, and sociocultural process through which individuals generate new ideas or solutions, by means of nonconventional associations and reorganizations of existing knowledge, capable of solving problems, producing meaning or adaptation, and which become creative insofar as they are appropriate, useful, or valued within a given context, domain, or social system.

In its most condensed form:

Creativity is the contextualized generation of meaningful novelty.

Creativity as a global practice and the role of the World Creativity Organization

The World Creativity Organization operates precisely at the point where science meets society, transforming knowledge about creativity into cultural, educational, economic, and human impact.

The World Creativity Day, celebrated in several countries, mobilizes people, organizations, and communities to apply creativity to real challenges.
WCO Members form a global network of individuals committed to the conscious, ethical, and responsible development of creativity.

More than a concept, creativity is a strategic human resource, and the WCO exists to cultivate it on a global scale.

Conclusion

Science shows that creativity is not improvisation, a gift, or random inspiration.
It is process, context, meaning, and value.

By understanding this, we open the way to better education, more responsible innovation, healthier organizational cultures, and more adaptable and humane societies.

When properly understood, creativity ceases to be a myth and becomes a structuring force for the future.

World Creativity Organization
Connecting creativity, knowledge and impact.