People with ADHD are highly creative without being bound by common sense
Concentration is generally considered beneficial, but it can hinder creativity, especially the creation of novel ideas. Therefore, the results of a small-scale experiment conducted under the hypothesis that people with
Thinking “Outside the Box”: Unconstrained Creative Generation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder --White --2020 --The Journal of Creative Behavior --Wiley Online Library
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jocb.382
New evidence that the “chaotic mind” of ADHD brings creative advantages – Research Digest
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/10/19/new-evidence-that-the-chaotic-mind-of-adhd-brings-creative-advantages/
Professor White conducted two creativity tests on 26 undergraduate students diagnosed with ADHD and 26 non-ADHD undergraduate students.
In the first test, subjects were drawn 'a picture of a creative and unusual fruit that is completely different from the fruit that actually exists.' The picture drawn by the subject was evaluated by two judges who did not know if the subject was diagnosed with ADHD.
As a result, the pictures of subjects diagnosed with ADHD tended to be evaluated as being more original and containing features that ignored the conventional 'concept of fruit'. Below is a picture drawn by a non-ADHD subject on the left and a subject diagnosed with ADHD on the right.
In the second test, the subject was forced to think of the original product name with a time limit of 10 minutes, imagining that he was working for an advertising agency. At that time, a total of 18 words were presented to the subjects, 6 words each with 3 keywords of 'analgesic', 'nuclear substance', and 'pasta'.
According to Professor White, each word has a common spelling characteristic for each keyword, analgesics are words ending in '-ol' and '-in' such as Panadol, Aspirin, and Bufferin, and nuclear material is '-on'. '-Um', pasta was a word ending with '-i' '-a'. Tests have shown that subjects diagnosed with ADHD are more likely to think of names that deviate from the law of spelling characteristics. However, the originality of pronunciation was about the same as that of the non-ADHD subject group.
From the results of this experiment, Professor White claims that 'ADHD has a creative advantage,' but this experiment has a small sample size and focuses on university students. Therefore, in future research, we would like to explore the possibility that ADHD will contribute to work, etc., after targeting a wider range of subjects.
Professor White further argues that 'ADHD may be beneficial for certain creative trials, especially divergent and unconstrained creative cognition.' 'By leveraging the strengths of ADHD and providing the necessary structure and support, individuals and organizations may be able to unlock the imagination and innovative potential of ADHD,' he added.
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in Science, Posted by log1i_yk