Creativity, Wealth And Poverty: Are They Linked?

Are one’s Creativity, wealth and Poverty linked?  We’re curious people at SparcIt, so we do what we do best – we conducted a study.

This is a closer look at our study, which is the first of its kind in finding and measuring the link between Creativity, Wealth and Poverty. The findings were surprising to say the least.

Digging In

We worked with SUNY Buffalo State University to get the ball rolling.  As part of this study, we worked collaboratively to pull together information from more than 6,000 participants and 161 countries across the globe.

Participants completed a set of open-ended exercises, such as mind-mapping, mini-saga, object-usage and improvement activities. These exercises are all part of our patented process to measure creativity, which uses four key indices: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Elaboration.

At the end of each set, participants were asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire that asked for various demographic including the country where they lived.

Using the geographic data specified by participants, we cross-referenced  the World Bank’s income classification data, which was broken down by the following buckets of gross national income (GNI) per capita:

• Low income: $1,035 or less
• Lower middle income: $1,036 to $4,085
• Upper middle income: $4,086 to $12,615
• High income: $12,616 or more

By comparing and contrasting these two large data sets, we were hoping to scientifically prove whether or not there is a connection between creativity and poverty.

Are Creativity, Wealth and Poverty Linked?

The results were clearer than we anticipated. We found that participants in “High Income” countries scored higher in creativity than the middle income countries and significantly higher than low income countries.

More specifically, participants from “High Income” countries scored approximately 0.8% higher than participants from “Mid Income” countries.  This is considered an insignificant jump. However, participants from “High Income” countries scored approximately 5% higher than participants in “Low Income” countries.  This is considered a more significant jump.  Moreover, we predict the gap is going to be higher as participants from”High Income” countries have access to better education and more resources.

 

Of course, any statistician or researcher will tell you that ‘correlation is not causation.’ While we cannot prove that creativity impacts income level or vice versa, but one thing is for certain – creativity, wealth and poverty are linked.

If interested in a full report, please contact us through SparcIt’s contact us page.

Disclaimer: SparcIt is not associated with any political organization.