Originality

An idea or product must be original to be considered creative: Reproducing exact copies of paintings, verbatim quotes from poetry, or repeating scientific theories that others have already presented before the world cannot be considered creative. Definitions of originality usually focus on novel or unusual behavior and ideas, something or someone that does not imitate past action or practice. Originality involves escaping the obvious and commonplace, breaking away from habit-bound thinking. Originality—that is, novel or unusual behavior and ideas—is necessary for creativity. By itself, however, originality may characterize the bizarre and the inappropriate; therefore, originality is not sufficient for an idea or product to be deemed creative. Social value, aesthetic appeal, and appropriateness are also necessary.

Most measures of creativity assess originality by using the criterion of statistical infrequency or rarity of responses. The number of unique ideas is often used to score divergent thinking tests, which are the most commonly used estimate of creative potential.

Research findings support the existence of high correlations between originality and fluency on most measures of creativity. Fluency is the ability to produce many ideas; it enables the individual to formulate more ideas than others do. Paul Torrance found that a person who generates a large number of alternatives is more likely to produce original ideas, and Dean Simonton confirmed those findings, showing that a person's originality is a function of the number of ideas formulated. Measures of originality, however, usually predict creative behavior more accurately than do measures of fluency. Therefore, though fluency increases the chance that original ideas will be produced, it is not sufficient for generating original ideas.

For meaningful measurement, originality must be defined with respect to sociocultural norms. Ideas that may be original in one culture may be old news to members of another culture. Although originality is a hallmark of creativity, the determination of originality needs a comparative base, whether it is the repertoire of an individual or the norms of a population, society, or culture. At the highest levels of creativity, the comparative base is worldwide or historical.

To assess originality of thinking across cultures, Paul Torrance administered three nonverbal and six verbal tasks to students in Grades 1 through 6 in the United States, Australia, Germany, India, and Western Samoa. Some responses were common across all cultures, whereas others were common in one culture but were considered original in others. For example, on the Circles Task, baseballs, basketballs, hoops, doorknobs, doughnut holes, steering wheels, and satellites were common in the United States but were scored as original for other cultures. Boats, bowls, breadfruit, cats, and leaves were common in Samoa but were unusual—and therefore scored as original—in other cultures. Eggplants, melons, pomegranates, rackets, pitchers, and tables were common in India but original elsewhere. Butterflies and traffic signs were common in Germany and original in other cultures. Buttons, clowns' faces, targets, and tires were common in the United States and Germany but were original in other cultures. Goats, lollipops, pumpkins, and scissors were common in the African American students in the United States sample, but were original in other cultures, including the broader United States. The cultural specificity of originality has been confirmed by the experiences of various scorers of creativity tests, including the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), using comparisons of American responses with the responses of people from other countries.

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