Developmental dyslexia and creativity: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Despite difficulties in reading and writing, some research suggests that dyslexia may be related to higher levels of creativity. However, this pattern is not consistently observed. The current research sought to ascertain whether individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia exhibit higher creativity than controls through a meta‐analysis. Fourteen studies that assessed the creativity of 397 individuals with clinically diagnosed dyslexia and 453 controls were reviewed. Random‐effects meta‐analysis revealed an overall non‐significant difference in creativity scores between those with dyslexia and controls. Additionally, method factors such as the type of creativity task and whether intelligence was controlled for, as well as sample‐related factors such as gender, did not explain differences in the dyslexia–creativity relationship. Nonetheless, individuals with dyslexia significantly outperformed controls in creativity scores in adult samples, but not in younger child/adolescent samples. Overall, the current findings provide limited support for the idea that individuals with dyslexia are more creative, and that past evidence of this relationship may be limited to adult samples.

Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration?

“…Such findings align with the results of another study which showed that students with DD performed significantly better on tasks that involved connecting unusual combinations of ideas supporting new possibilities and original solutions (Cancer et al, 2016). Two recent meta-analyses highlight that a consistent creative advantage is not always found in children and adolescents with dyslexia (Erbeli et al, 2021a;Majeed et al, 2021). However, Erbeli et al (2021a) found that compared with adolescents, adults with dyslexia did show a creative advantage over non-dyslexic adults.…”

“…Initial evidence also suggests that enhanced creativity in individuals with dyslexia may be more pronounced in females than males (Erbeli et al, 2021a). Majeed et al (2021) also found that in the adult samples, individuals with dyslexia significantly out-performed those without dyslexia on creativity scores.…”

“…Bigozzi et al (2016) andAkhavan Tafti et al (2009) found that in fluency and flexibility subtests, the performance of participants with DD was equivalent to their peers, whereas in other studies performance was significantly better (Cockcroft and Hartgill, 2004;Kapoula et al, 2016;Lam and Tong, 2021 (in non-verbal tasks)). Most studies found that individuals with DD significantly outperformed those without DD in tests of originality (Cockcroft and Hartgill, 2004;Akhavan Tafti et al, 2009;Bigozzi et al, 2016;Kapoula et al, 2016;Lam and Tong, 2021 (in non-verbal tasks)), although this result may not always be consistent (Majeed et al, 2021). Bigozzi et al (2016), who differentiated between fluency and originality to avoid possible confounding factors, still found greater originality among those with DD.…”

Bridging Neurodiversity and Open Scholarship: How Shared Values Can Guide Best Practices for Research Integrity, Social Justice, and Principled Education

“…Furthermore, differences in moral reasoning may help neurodivergent researchers to identify ethical or epistemological issues which would otherwise remain uncovered. This difference in moral reasoning reflects a larger heterogeneity of information processing across the neurodiversity spectrum, including differences in creative or divergent thinking (Best et al, 2015;Colautti et al, 2021;Magenes et al, 2021;Majeed et al, 2021;Sedgwick et al, 2019), vocabulary and reading experience (e.g., Elsherif et al, 2021), pattern recognition (Baron-Cohen et al, 2009;Schneps et al, 2011), and the influence of cognitive biases (Rozenkrantz et al, 2021). In particular, cognitive biases such as confirmation bias have been identified as a key issue in the interpretation of scientific results.…”

Self‐concept, creativity and developmental dyslexia in university students: Effects of age of assessment

“…Others, however, using a variety of definitions and measures of creativity, report no differences (Alves & Nakano, 2014; Łockiewicz, Bogdanowicz, & Bogdanowicz, 2014; Mourgues, Preiss, & Grigorenko, 2014; Ritchie, Luciano, Hansell, Wright, & Bates, 2013). Two recent meta‐analyses of dyslexia and creativity have helped to resolve some of this inconsistency: both found that while readers with dyslexia as a group are no more creative than those without dyslexia, adults with dyslexia (but not children or adolescents) are significantly more creative than adults without dyslexia (Erbeli, Peng, & Rice, 2022; Majeed, Hartanto, & Tan, 2021). Of course, it may not be the measured ability itself that is important: readers with dyslexia are widely believed to be creative (anecdotal evidence abounds of dyslexic designers, architects and artists – see Brunswick, 2009), so it may be that perception of one's own creativity will be evident amongst these readers irrespective of their actual ability.…”