Is There an ‘Arts Bias’ in theCreativity Research Journal? Comment on Glāveanu (2014)

Who is the most creative of them all?: Art bias in laypersons’ explicit and implicit beliefs.

“…Similarly, our findings show that participants explicitly rated artistic occupations as more creative than they did scientific, businessoriented, and conventional ones. This is consistent with past findings (Cropley, 2014;Masnick et al, 2010;Valenti et al, 2016) that hint at art bias, which predisposes individuals to perceive artistic occupations as more creative than others. Scientific and business-oriented occupations did not differ significantly implicitly and explicitly in perceived creativity.…”

“…Creativity comprises ideas that are both novel and useful (Plucker et al, 2004). Even though creativity is required across many occupations, those in artistic professions (such as musicians, painters, and actors) are more likely to be viewed by laypeople as creative than those in nonartistic jobs (Cropley, 2014). This tendency to consider aesthetic and artistic activities as the primary prototypes of creativity (Rocavert, 2020), while considering other fields like science, business, and conventional occupations (jobs requiring systematic problem solving and working with data, numbers, and administrative tasks; Holland, 1997) as less creative, is often known as the “art bias.” The continued persistence of this distorted view of creativity has narrowed the perception and assessment of this construct, resulting in biased perspectives.…”

“…Researchers have concurred that associating creativity with artistic talent alone is an extensive misunderstanding of what creativity entails (Glăveanu, 2017;Runco, 2007). This bias can lead to people not seeing how they might apply their creativity in nonartistic areas (Cropley, 2014). Further, the art bias that surrounds creativity makes it less practical and useful to the common person, running the risk of making creativity appear to only be reserved for geniuses (Plucker et al, 2004).…”

Creative Activity and Accomplishment as Indicators of Polymathy Among Gifted and Nongifted Students

“…Initially, creativity was tied to the arts; for example, only the artists were thought to be creative. Although this view persists in the form of an art bias (Cropley, 2014;Runco, 2014), it is widely held that creativity can be expressed in diverse domains (Gardner, 1983;Runco, 1986). Evidence largely supports domain specificity, meaning that an individual who is creative in one domain is not necessarily creative in other domains.…”

Creative activity and accomplishment as indicators of polymathy among gifted and nongifted students

“…Initially, creativity was tied to the arts; for example, only artists were thought to be creative. Although this view persists in the form of an art bias ( Cropley, 2014 ; Runco, 2014 ), it is widely held that creativity can be expressed in diverse domains ( Gardner, 1983 ; Runco, 1986 ). The term domain has been defined as “the set of representations that underlie and support thinking in a specific area of knowledge” ( Baer, 2011 , p. 404).…”