  Despite popular media interest in uncovering the creative habits of
successful people, there is a surprising paucity of empirical research on the
diversity of tendencies and preferences people have when engaged in creative
work. We developed a simple survey that characterized 42 creative habits along
21 independent dimensions. Data from 9,633 respondents revealed seven 'Creative
Species', or clusters of people with combinations of creative habits that tend
to co-occur more than expected by chance. These emergent clusters where
relatively stable to random subsampling of the population and to variation in
model parameters. The seven Creative Species self-sorted along a primary
gradient from those characterized by more 'deliberate' creative habits (e.g.,
Monotasker, Risk Averse, Routine Seeker, Tenacious, Make it Happen) to those
characterized by more 'open' creative habits (e.g. Multitasker, Risk Friendly,
Novelty Seeker, Reframer, Let it Happen). A weaker second gradient was defined
by outward and rational vs inward and intuitive creators. For the subset of
respondents with data about their broad professional discipline (Art, Science,
and Business) and gender, some groups were more (or less) common in some
Creative Species than expected by chance, but the absolute magnitude of these
differences were generally small; and knowing the discipline or gender of a
person was not a good single predictor of their creative preferences or
tendencies. Together these results suggest that independent of discipline or
gender, people vary widely in the habits, behaviors, and contexts in which they
feel most creative. Understanding creative diversity is critical for improving
the creative performance of both individuals and collaborative teams.
