EXPLAINING CREATIVITY - THE ATTRIBUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Throughout history, laypeople and scientists alike have tended to attr ibute creative behavior to dispositional rather than situational cause s. One result has been a highly skewed research literature in which cr eativity is studied primarily by personality and cognitive psychologis ts searching for characteristics of ''creative people'' and paying com paratively little attention to external influences on creativity. In t his article, I argue that the human tendency to attribute creative beh avior to dispositional causes does not stem entirely from the actual i mpact of dispositions on creative behavior but is influenced also by d eep-rooted attributional proclivities and biases, which are described herein. I also discuss how dispositional attributions of creative beha vior affect the future production, evaluation, and attribution of orig inal creations, and I describe how attributional principles can be use d to enhance creativity.