Creativity, birth order, and risk taking

Abstract

Several hypotheses were formed and supported regarding the greater creativity and risk taking of fIrstborn males. It was also found, in this sample of 200 white middle-class adult males, that risk taking and creativity were related. The creativity measures included Eisenman's (1969) Personal Opinion Survey measure of creative attitudes, an unusual-uses test yielding scores for fluency and originality, and preference for complexity. All the predictions were signifIcant beyond the .011evel. The greater risk taking offrrstborn males found in the present study is somewhat incompatible with the results of previous birth-order/risk-taking research, and this discrepancy is discussed.Several studies have shown a link between creativity and risk taking, with highly creative persons more willing to take risks than less creative subjects. MerrifIeld, Guilford, Christensen, and Frick (1961) found a significant relationship between associational fluency and a personality inventory measure of risk taking. Other investigators have been concerned with showing a relationship between risk taking and creativity in performance measures of risk taking. Pankove and Kogan (1968) utilized alternate uses and pattern meanings as creativity measures and compared performance on these tests to risk taking on a shuttleboard task; they found small but positive relationships. Eisenman (1969) measured creativity by scores on his Personal Opinion Survey, a 30-item, true-false, paper-and-pencil measure of creative attitudes; he found that creative college students so identified were more willing to risk their semester's grade on one test than were less creative students. Thus, all three investigations linked creativity and risk taking, with the subjects having been children or adults, and the tasks differing from study to study with regard to both creativity and risk taking. Also, these investigators controlled for intelligence or academic ability, so the results relate creativity to risk taking independent of the effects of intelligence. Creativity measures are usually considered to tap divergent thinking abilities, apart from the convergent thinking demanded by IQ and academic achievement tests.The aim of the present study was to determine whether firstborn males would be more creative and more willing to engage in risk taking than later-born males. Birth order has many empirical correlates, presumably due to differential treatment by parents based on the child's ordinal position. Genetic factors could also relate to birthorder fmdings. Kagan (1969) noted that every child and adult lives in a social structure and has some awareness of his/her position in that structure. A disproportionate number of firstborns are named as Rhodes scholars, are listed in Whos Who, and achieve distinction in science Schussel (1970) showed that firstborn males scored higher than later-born males on several creativity tests. The present study focused on males, because there seems to be a relationship between creativity and being a firstborn male. It was expected...

Relationships Between Creativity and its Antecedents Before and After Training: The Role of Risk-Taking and Past Creative Experience

“…However, quantitative studies produced inconsistent results. Some researchers reported a positive relationship between willingness to take risks and supervisor-rated creativity (Dewett, 2006), risk-taking and creative attitude (Eisenman, 1987), and risk-taking and creative potential (Eisenman, 1987). In other studies, no relationship was found between risktaking propensity and process innovativeness (Das & Joshi, 2007), or willingness to take risks and self-reported creativity measured by past awards (Dewett, 2007).…”

“…Risktaking and past creative experience have been frequently investigated in relation to creativity (e.g., Audia & Gancalo, 2007;Dewett, 2006;Eisenman, 1987;Dragseth, 2007;Das & Joshi, 2007;Taylor & Greve, 2006), yet, there has been little consensus in the results.…”

“…To achieve this goal, it is important to know what factors might help enhance creativity. Despite a substantial body of research, there is little consensus about creativity antecedents (e.g., Eisenman, 1987;Dragseth, 2007). Extant studies have produced conflicting evidence as to what antecedents contribute to creativity.…”

Creativity and liking Republicans: Ideology or outgroup support?

“…The political ideology explanation leads to the expectation that creative students will dislike Republicans because Republicans are so often distant from the preferred style of creative people (i.e ., creative people are often experimenting, radical, and risk-taking; see Barron, 1990;Eisenman, 1987Eisenman, , 1991a. The acceptance-of-outgroups explanation leads to the conclusion that creative students will be more accepting of Republicans than will noncreative students, because Republicans are, or at least have been until recently, something of an outgroup in the state where the research was conducted.…”

“…If political ideology is the basis of choice, we should expect that creative students would dislike Republicans, since the Republican ideology seems too conservative, most of the time , to appeal to creative people . Creative people tend to be radical, experimenting, and risk-taking (Barron, 1990;Eisenman, 1987Eisenman, , 1991a, whereas Republicans tend to be conservatives (Eisenman & Sirgo, 1991). Creative students might like Democrats, who tend to be more liberal, but they might also dislike Democrats since Democrats are not typically as radical and experimenting as creative people tend to be (Eisenman, 1991b).…”