It is said that Darwin, Chekhov and Proust were easily distracted, but that did not prevent them from developing their theories and writing their masterpieces. Although our culture praises the power of focus and concentration, the truth is that creativity often goes hand in hand with distraction.
A study conducted at Northwestern University has found that particularly creative people have difficulty silencing the sounds of car horns, dripping taps or people talking in the office. These people have more “leaks” in their sensory filters, which affects their ability to concentrate but also allows them to integrate different ideas, which is one of the keys to creativity.
In fact, it is said that Proust sealed off the room where he wrote with cork and even used earplugs. This was the only way he could concentrate. Wagner claimed that his greatest need for composing a piece of music was tranquillity, silence and calm, while Kafka said he needed solitude to write.
Distraction: A necessary factor for creativity
The experiment involved 84 people. Their level of creativity was assessed in two different ways. In the first test, they were asked to find a creative ending to some stories. The more endings they found and the more original or ingenious they were, the higher their score on the creativity scale. The second test consisted of finding creative solutions to everyday problems. This is how the most creative people were identified.
The electrical activity of their brains was then measured, looking for signs that indicated the ability to automatically filter out unwanted information. To do this, they were made to listen to two clicks, separated by just 500 milliseconds, through headphones. Most people showed a strong physiological activation when they heard the first click but then inhibited the second. However, this was not the case for creative people.
These people continued to show high activation after the second click, which reveals that their filters to stop irrelevant information were not working very well. These results tell us that being easily distracted is not as bad as we think.
The hidden relationship between creativity and distraction
Sensory filters allow us to detect irrelevant stimuli coming from the environment and inhibit them, thus allowing us to stay focused on the task at hand. However, recent studies indicate that at some point in the creative process, these filters need to have some “leaks.”
By allowing a greater amount of stimuli to enter our consciousness, we are more likely to be able to come up with new, different and original combinations. In practice, in the early stages of the creative process, distraction allows us to find more answers because it integrates ideas that would otherwise have remained outside our focus of attention.
If we are able to channel these stimuli in the right direction, then distraction will allow us to find a life richer in stimuli and experiences, which can unleash creativity.
Reference:
Zabelina, D. L. et. Al. (2015) Creativity and sensory gating indexed by the P50: Selective versus leaky sensory gating in divergent thinkers and creative achievers. Neuropsychologia; 69: 77-84.
