This four-minute word test can determine how creative you are, according to researchers

A group of researchers has created a test to measure creativity, and it relies on just 10 words.

The short test, which is typically completed in less than four minutes, measures a component of creativity called divergent thinking, according to the researchers from McGill University, Harvard University, and the University of Melbourne, who note that “several theories posit that creative people are able to generate more divergent ideas”.

Divergent thinking typically refers to an individual’s ability to generate various diverse solutions.

To test the theory, the test asks that individuals think of 10 words that are as different as possible “in all meanings and uses of the word”.

There are some rules, however, with those taking the test instructed to only come up with nouns that are single words. The instructions also rule out the use of proper nouns, “specialised vocabulary,” such as technical terms, and words influenced by one’s surroundings.

The test-taker is then instructed to enter each word into a separate box and then click submit, with the Divergent Association Task (DAT) test then relying on a “computational algorithm” that estimates “the average semantic distance between the words,” according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To decipher the semantic distance, the algorithm relied on a database that “infers the semantic distances of thousands of words based on their usage across billions of web pages,” CNN states.

The test then gives individuals a score out of 200, with the website noting that “the average score is 78, and most people score between 74 and 82,” while also acknowledging “scores above 100 are extremely unlikely on first attempts”.

Speaking to CNN, Jay Olson, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University who came up with the concept and who is one of the study authors, explained: “The test measures divergent thinking and verbal creativity, which are important but limited aspects of overall creativity. Our task won’t predict your creative culinary skills, but it will predict performance on various types of problem-solving, which suggests it is doing more than simply measuring vocabulary.”

The test, which is much simpler and shorter than other creativity tests, was also found to reveal similar results to the Alternative Uses Task, in which “participants generate uses for common objects,” and the Bridge-the-Associative-Gap Task, which asks individuals to come up with a third word that fits with two other words.

Interestingly, the researchers, who analysed results from nearly 9,000 participants aged seven to 70 across 98 countries, found demographic differences varied only slightly, which suggests that the test can be reliably used to test creativity in diverse populations.

“Our results suggest that age, gender and location are not limiting factors: almost anyone can be creative,” Olson told CNN. “Having more methods to measure creativity means that we can better assess the success of various different methods to promote and nurture creativity.”

Overall, the study states that the results “suggest that simply asking participants to name unrelated words can serve as a reliable measure of divergent thinking”.