CREATIVITY, ITS DENSITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION

• Authors: Veres P.
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

The density of talent (creativity) in an ethnic group or population is calculated in various ways by scholars. Some of them estimate it to be 0.025% or 1-2-3-4-5-6-8-8.3% of the total population; others put it as high as 10-15-16-20-30-50%. All this means that research about creativity has not yet reached a consensus. According to the author, the density of creative persons in a given population does not reveal the assumed 'normal distribution' accepted by most scholars. The distribution of talent pursues a totally different distributional pattern, one discovered by Pareto, an asymmetric, logarithmic (or lognormal) distribution known today as the 'Zipf-Pareto principle' (or Zipf-law). It means that the ratio of potentially talented persons is constantly constituted by the square root, = 1/10th of the total population. Assuming that the number of the population or ethnic group is 100%, its 10%, i.e. mathematically speaking the square root or 'geometrical average' will therefore be the ratio of talented persons. In addition to this 10 per cent, there exists an even smaller group of 'super-creative' persons, equalling the square root of this former 10% group (3.16%). The existence of this smaller group is backed up by population genetics. In any case, in European societies authentic culture is acquired in an intelligent way by 10% of the total population, while the relevant information when compared to total information consists in the square root of that per cent. Moreover the symmetrical functioning of both cerebral hemispheres, a necessary and inevitable condition for the manifestation of talent, is present only on 10% of a given population. In addition the clear dominance of the right cerebral hemisphere (the centre of creativity, intuition, vision and emotional life) is also present in 10-12% of a given population.

Keywords

EN

ABILITY; CREATIVITY; EMERGENESIS; GIFT; INSIGHT; LOGNORMAL DISTRIBUTION; POPULATION; TALENT; TALENT SCOUTING; ZIPF-LAW; ZIPF–PARETO PRINCIPLE

Discipline

• ETHNOLOGY: ETHNOLOGY

• Publisher: Department of Economics and Law, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Tarsadalomkutatas (Social Science Research)
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 322-339
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Veres P.

• P. Veres, Institute of Ethnography, HAS (for postal address conatct the journal editor)

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09HUAAAA071214