Perceived Creativity, Set, and Preference for Simple or Complex Shapes

Abstract

82 female student nurses were asked to choose their three most preferred polygons from 12 presented to them. Half the Ss were instructed that the top row, which contained the simplest shapes, are preferred by creative people. The other half of the Ss were instructed that the bottom row, which contained the complex shapes, are preferred by creative people. Each S also stated whether or not she perceived of herself as creative. Their sets significantly affected choices, with Ss choosing the simple or complex polygons in accord with the kind they were told creative Ss choose. Perceived creativity tended to be related to choice of complex polygons, but this trend did not reach statistical significance.

Personality and demography in complexity-simplicity.

“…AH polygons were asymmetrical random shapes, which had originally been constructed by connecting random points on a 100 X 100 grid (Attneave & Arnoult, 1956). Previous research (Eisenman, 1965a(Eisenman, , 1965b(Eisenman, , 1966(Eisenman, , 1967a(Eisenman, , 1967bEisenman, Hannon, & Bernard, 1966) had suggested that the polygons employed in the present study reveal differential preference for such diverse groupings as schizophrenics versus nonschizophrenics, firstborns versus later borns, and other dichotomies.…”

A theory of variability discrimination: Finding differences

“…Furthermore, with rather little effort, people find differences when they shop (assessing product variety), look at an audience (assessing racial or age diversity), or visit an art museum (assessing the represented variations in styles, artists, and exhibits). Understanding this vital discrimination process will surely affect how marketers and museum curators organize and package their wares in order to manipulate our perceptions, but it can also inform the development of contemporary theories of the out-group homogeneity effect (Kashima & Kashima, 1993), perceived creativity (Eisenman, Hannon, & Bernard, 1966), and variability preference (Munsinger & Kessen, 1966).…”