Another look at creativity and intelligence: Exploring higher-order models and probable confounds

How strongly is creativity related to intelligence? Although a large body of work has found a small relationship between them, there are reasons to suspect that their relationship has been underestimated. Most studies have assessed creativity and intelligence with observed scores, not as latent variables, and few studies have examined higher-order latent intelligence factors. A sample of university students (n = 226) completed divergent thinking tasks and measures of fluid reasoning, verbal fluency, and strategy generation. Creativity was modestly related to the three lower-order cognitive factors, but it was substantially related (β = .43) to a higher-order intelligence factor composed of the lower-order factors. This effect declined (β = .26) when openness to experience, a likely confounding variable, was considered.