This approach to understanding creative potential—and our capacity to produce creativity—follows the same logic proposed by Stan Kuczaj. Dr. Kuczaj, a comparative psychologist and dolphin expert, wasn’t satisfied with the narrowly standardized approach to cetacean research. He implored his fellow researchers to ask, “not how smart are dolphins, but how are dolphins smart?”
His approach to cetacean intelligence arose from a variation on the question “how smart are dolphins?” He understood that dolphin intelligence was categorically different than our human conception of intelligence. In other words, it was nonsense to study dolphin brilliance in comparison to humans.
Similarly, constricting the question of our creative potential to a monolithic container reduces the complexity of creativity. It makes creativity exclusive, and it diminishes the value of our individual differences.
We begin our work with the belief that creative potential is multidimensional. It is cultural, social, emotional, psychological, and cognitive all at once.