The Creativity Crisis

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from an article at Newsweek: "For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. ... Like intelligence tests, Torrance's test — a 90-minute series of discrete tasks, administered by a psychologist — has been taken by millions worldwide in 50 languages. Yet there is one crucial difference between IQ and CQ scores. With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect — each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling. Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. 'It's very clear, and the decrease is very significant,' Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America — from kindergarten through sixth grade — for whom the decline is 'most serious.'"

Comments

CQ

[mwvdlee]

How do you measure creativity anyway?

90 for people that give all the correct answers.
90-100 for everybody that fills in answers that have nothing to do with the questions.
100-110 for those that draw pretty pixelated pictures using the multiple choice boxes.
110-120 for the people that draw pretty pictures outside the boxes.
130+ when they make the questionaire form into paper mache.

GOML test, really

[bytesex]

This sounds like a test developed by baby boomers to test baby-boomerishness in people. It's the get-of-my-lawn test.

Re:Play time?

[AnonymousClown]

Obviously, the population of America in 2010 is very different from the population in 1960

That's right! In the 1960s, they used more creativity enhancing substances.

I think this article is a case for the legalization of recreational drugs.

KEEP AMERICA CREATIVE! SMOKE POT!

Re:Play time?

[houghi]

I'm not getting the feeling there's a lot of helpful information here.

Just use your imagination. Jeez!

Actually... No.

[denzacar]

It is a thinly veiled excuse for furthering the "war on terror".

Re:The obvious culprit according to the media

[Ihmhi]

"It’s too early to determine conclusively why U.S. creativity scores are declining. One likely culprit is the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing videogames rather than engaging in creative activities.

Hey now, I got pretty creative in Counter-Strike. I creatively invented all kinds of words like donghugger and cuntwaffle.

Re:Validity

[Reilaos]

If you don't think you can reliably measure creativity, you obviously aren't being creative enough!

Re:Validity

[Glonoinha]

Oh yea, I remember this one ...
The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping.

Re:The obvious culprit according to the media

[Anonymous Coward]

But while you were typing them, someone got you with their AWP and you then understood the value of short words like "OMG HAX!"

Re:Validity

[TheRaven64]

No one who has been sent to the electric chair has ever needed treating for depression afterwards...

Re:Play time?

[5pp000]

I've worked with South Koreans once, and over three months, I couldn't find any correlation between their actions and common sense. For example, when a brand new $100 million piece of equipment malfunctions, my first thought would be to get the on-site American engineer they flew in to assemble it, and not a hammer and some duct tape.

Right! The American engineer would know where to whack with the hammer, and where to stick the duct tape.

Re:Play time?

[doom]

Do they know how to fix a tire on their bicycle? (Do they even ride a bicycle?)

Are you seriously suggesting that children should be out riding bicycles, unsupervised? This is horribly irresponsible and dangerous behavior. Everyone knows you should never let our child out of the house unless encased in a plastic shell strapped down inside a steel cage, with at least two armed adults to protect it. Otherwise it might be kidnapped by mexican pedophile flying saucers from mars.

Re:Play time?

[musmax]

Too long. Did not read.

Re:Play time?

[SpecBear]

Look around at all of the objects in your room and ask yourself "How could I turn this into a bong?" Then put the same question to someone who's high.

Re:Play time?

[w0mprat]

Everything today is "tamper proof", so it's not possible to open the devices, and if you are able to do it - there is nothing to learn.

Thanks to devices like the iPad the next generation won't even have root access to their devices.

Re:Play time?

[Golddess]

BB gun wars, riding bicycles in skateboard parks or out in the woods where natural gullies made ramps 10-15 foot high, all without helmets or any pads (other than those shitty ones wrapped around the bike in strategic places).

You had me until this. If your eye protection, helmets, or pads are interfering with your activities, then you're doing something wrong. Either you've got improper gear or you're using it incorrectly.