Greetings all,
A colleague has asked me a question that I am not confident in answering and was wondering if someone might point me in the right direction. I am interested in locating studies on creativity and innovation as people age. I am familiar with studies measuring students potential for creativity, mainly through the entrepreneurial education literature. However I have missed the path to follow on creativity and age. I am also familiar with studies involving patents.
When we were discussing this topic we had a ‘shoot from the hip’ thought that age has little do with the creative output but rather such activity is a result of individual environmental factors. We thought that time available for creative reflection decreased as pressure of work and social considerations increased. This may be one explanation. While this may be intuitive, is there an actual study that either confirms or disputes such finding?
The context in which the question was asked was one of increasing age of the population in many western countries, and the popular impression that business needs to be innovative in order to advance. While there are some industries, ours, and the ‘arts’ being two, where creativity is present and encouraged as we age, it is also expected of us. In addition the environment is ‘supposed’ to be constructed to enable creativity. Outside of such ‘creative’ industries however is there an actual study available that specifically relates creativity and innovation to biological age over time?
Thanks,
Enjoy
Kind Regards