 20. Creativity and Genius  431
cess in predicting creativity (Plucker, Makel, 
& Qian, 2019).
3. Moving from cognitive to personality 
traits per se, creative persons exhibit a tre -
mendous amount of openness to experience, 
a key factor of the Big Five factor model 
(McCrae & Greenberg, 2014). For example, 
highly creative scientists are more likely to 
display a wide range of interests and hob -
bies (e.g., Root-  Bernstein et al., 2008; Root- 
Bernstein, Bernstein, & Garnier, 1995; see 
also Grosul & Feist, 2014). This breadth 
can often take the form of extraordinary 
versatility that enables creators to make 
contributions to more than one domain of 
achievement (Cassandro, 1998; Cassandro 
& Simonton, 2010).
4. Beyond these aspects of the creative 
disposition the motivational attributes. Cre -
ators deeply love what they do, and thus 
show exceptional enthusiasm, energy, and 
commitment to their chosen domain of cre -
ative endeavor (e.g., Chambers, 1964; Roe, 
1953). So strong is this emotional involve -
ment that creators are often perceived by 
family and friends as “workaholics”—an at -
tribution that is not without empirical justi -
fication (Helmreich, Spence, & Pred, 1988; 
Matthews et al., 1980). In any case, because 
of this characteristic, creators are extremely 
persistent in the face of obstacles and dis -
appointments (e.g., Chambers, 1964; Cox, 
1926). They do not give up easily.1
5. The foregoing cognitive and motiva -
tional attributes are usually coupled with 
a characteristic social orientation. Creative 
individuals are more likely to be introverted 
than to be extroverted (Feist, 1998). Indeed, 
this introversion can reach the level of being 
rather remote, withdrawn, and even antiso -
cial (Cattell, 1963; Eysenck, 1995). At the 
same time, creative persons are prone to 
exhibit a high degree of independence and 
autonomy, often displaying a pronounced 
rebellious streak in their categorical refus -
al to conform to conventional norms (e.g., 
Crutchfield, 1962; Roe, 1953).
6. Highly creative individuals, and espe -
cially creative geniuses, seem to show higher 
than average rates of subclinical psycho -
pathological symptoms (Simonton, 2019b). 
This tendency is sometimes indicated by disorders such as suicidal depression, as well 
as alcoholism or other forms of substance 
abuse (e.g., Ludwig, 1995; Post, 1996). In 
addition, highly creative personalities often 
exhibit elevated scores on psychometric in -
struments that are indicative of mental dis -
order or emotional instability, such as the 
Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Person -
ality Questionnaire (Eysenck, 1995) or the 
Clinical subscales of the Minnesota Multi -
phasic Personality Inventory (Barron, 1969; 
MacKinnon, 1978). Creativity is also nega -
tively associated with the ability to filter out 
irrelevant information (Carson, 2014). Al -
though this characteristic is positively corre -
lated with openness to experience, it is also 
positively associated with both psychoticism 
and psychosis (Eysenck, 1995; Stavridou & 
Furnham, 1996). Yet the surprising thing is 
that creators appear to enjoy psychological 
resources—  including intelligence and ego- 
strength—  that convert potential liabilities 
into personal assets (Barron, 1969; Carson, 
2014; Cattell & Butcher, 1968). Hence, out -
right, debilitating mental illness is relatively 
rare.
I hasten to point out that the empirical and 
theoretical literature is by no means consis -
tent regarding the above personality sketch.2 
Many researchers would delete one or more 
of the listed attributes, and a few researchers 
would omit virtually all of them. The points 
raised in the next section will help us under -
stand why.
Specific Substantive  Issues
Seven critical questions complicate any at -
tempt to understand the personality of the 
creative genius. These issues concern every -
day versus exceptional achievements, child -
hood versus adulthood creativity, cognitive 
versus dispositional attributes, scientific ver -
sus artistic creativity, nature versus nurture 
in creative development, and individual ver -
sus situational determinants of creativity.
Everyday versus  Exceptional  Achievements
The primary focus of the personality sketch 
I presented earlier was to describe the cre -
ative genius. The implicit assumption was 