Conditional Reasoning Test for Creative Personality: Rationale, Theoretical Development, and Validation

Abstract

The innovations of creative individuals are regarded as vital for business functioning and survival. To this end, efforts have been made to design measures of creative personality in hopes of predicting creative performance. Current measures of creative personality all reside at the explicit level, yet theory and research both suggest that a large proportion of personality can also be conceptualized at the implicit level. We address this issue by presenting a theoretical basis for creative personality that operates on an implicit level. Using conditional reasoning methodology, we describe five cognitive biases that serve as justification mechanisms for creative personality. Next, we link implicit creative personality to creative abilities through a developmental process. We then test this model and our new measure of creative personality in five different studies. Our results provide evidence in support of an implicit component of creative personality and suggest that it is a substantial predictor of creative performance. Finally, we describe the management and human resources implications of the conceptualization of creative personality as an implicit construct.