An Empirical Study of Intuition and Creativity

Abstract

The relationship between intuition and creativity is examined. After defining intuition from a phenomenological point of view and in terms of the cognitive and conative processes at work, an empirical study of intuition and creativity is presented. Creativity was measured through a test of divergent thinking as well as two creative production tasks. The tendency to act or treat information using an intuitive mode was assessed by: a) the Rational-Experiential Inventory [1]; b) scenario-based questionnaire; and c) two objective tests that measured some of the processes hypothesized to be central to intuition. The results from 76 student participants show that the scenario-based intuition questionnaire was significantly related to the REI intuition scale and to measures of creativity. The other measures of intuition showed little to no relation to creativity. Perspectives for future research are discussed.