Variability of creativity judgments
Résumé
The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), developed by Amabile [Amabile, T.M. (1982). Social psychology
of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 997–1013],
is frequently used to evaluate the creativity of productions. Judgments obtained with CAT are usually reliable
and valid. However, notable individual differences in judgment exist. This empirical study shows that
creativity judgments for advertisements vary, depending on (1) the level of two underlying components of
creativity — originality and appropriateness, (2) the creative ability of the judges, i.e. variations in their ability
to be original, and finally, (3) instructions or training that they received about the topic of creativity
assessment. Effects of advertisements' appropriateness and judges' ability to be original on individual
differences in creativity judgments are discussed.