A field study of nonverbal creativity.

The article presents a field study of nonverbal creativity. Most empirical investigations of creativity have used such easily accessible populations as school and college students, though studies of individuals whose professional productivity has been noteworthy provide an important exception. Thus, when the opportunity arose to examine the creative products of a heterogeneous sample of adults in a nonlaboratory setting, it seemed worthwhile to do so despite the lack of control over confounding variables, which is inherent in field investigations. In March 1969, a New York radio station held a "Little Green Things" contest. Listeners were invited to submit humorous and original hale green things, the best would receive a $300 prize and there were ten consolation awards of $20 each. The contest ended on Saint Patrick's Day, but no suggestion was made as to appropriate themes or the kind of product desired. Interest in examining these objects revolved around two problems. First, whether the degree of creativity shown by a product related to characteristics of the individual who contributed that product. In particular, whether nonverbal creativity is associated to a significant degree with either the sex or the socioeconomic status of the respondent.