Diversity, Not Adversity, Is Believed to be Typical of Creative Geniuses: Lay Theories of the Link between Diversifying Experiences and Creativity

Diversifying childhood experiences, including adversity and diversity, have been found to predict more genius-level creativity. Critics argue this link could be an artifact of lay theories of the childhood experiences characteristic of geniuses. We surveyed 350 people and found that diversity (but not adversity) was considered typical of creative geniuses.