The contribution of planning to real-world creativity: The moderating role of agreeableness

Abstract

Creativity can be conceptualised as the result of a blend of individual interacting resources. The present study investigated in a sample of 83 young Italian adults the interplay amongst planning, personality, and real-world creativity, assuming the Big Five personality dimensions as moderator variables. The ability to plan was assessed by means of the Tower of London, whereas creativity was evaluated using the Visual Creative Synthesis Task, in which participants were asked to generate real-world creative objects (e.g., weapon). Three independent judges evaluated the inventions in terms of creativity, which includes both originality and appropriateness dimensions. Results showed that planning was positively related to real-world creative production, whereas agreeableness, at low-middle levels, represented the only personality dimension moderating the planning-creativity link. Our results suggested that the individual tendency to be less agreeable, which implies a reduced disposition to be compliant and less caring about others’ opinions, ideas, and judgments, brings people to use their own ability to plan in order to promote creativity. Future research directions are also discussed.