Can Conservatives Be Creative?

By Peter Lloyd

No, not if the word conservative means moderate, careful, restrained, keeping with traditional, opposing change. Or if we make the mistake of confusing methods with goals.

"Conservatively" describes the way so-called Conservatives tend to believe we should govern ourselves. The creativity of Conservatives, on the other hand, has to do with the way they work, not the goals they pursue. With that in mind, in the United States at least, there's no lack of creativity among Conservatives of either party.

But wait! The British Psychological Society, in its Research Digest Blog under the title "Conservatives are less creative than liberals," says, "People who hold conservative views tend to lack creativity relative to more liberal-minded people, according to a new psychology study."

What kind of psychological study? They're citing "Creativity and conservatism" by Stephen J. Dollinger of the Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University. Impressed? Hold the phone.

An abstract of his study reads as follows:

Across a range of disciplines it is assumed that conservatism and creativity are polar opposites. Although conservatism correlates negatively with appreciation of certain art forms, are conservatives in fact less creative? Four hundred and twenty-two undergraduates completed a Creative Behavior Inventory and creative products judged by the consensual assessment technique. Compared to more liberal college students, those endorsing more conservative positions on a brief version of the Conservatism scale had fewer creative accomplishments and devised photo essays and drawings judged as less creative. Results for accomplishments and drawing products held true when controlling for verbal ability and openness.

You can read the complete report here, but you'll have to pay the fare.

It doesn't help the Conservative Creativity Cause that, in one of the comments to the "Conservatives are less creative than liberals" blog post, an anonymous conservative proclaims that the study "should not be published!!!" Note the three exclamation points. That's creative, all right.

Of course, it's easy to see why one might jump to the conclusion that Liberals are more creative. Creativity calls for liberality, not necessarily in the political sense, but in one's approach to manipulating and playing with the things, processes, and ideas we set out to improve or change. In fact, creativity, invention, and innovation are all about change.

In the political sphere, however, Liberals and Conservatives both want to change what the other establishes. Likewise, both want to keep or conserve what they have established. So we have to divorce the way people work from what they're working for in order to judge the creativity in either camp.

And when it comes to doing their political work, Conservatives certainly prove themselves to be as creative, if not more creative, than their counterparts. Both groups innovate and both solve problems every day as they promote their opposing agendas. They are successful to the degree that they innovate creatively.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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