The Study About Nobel Prize Winners Gives Clues About How Age Affects Creativity

Older winners tend to be 'experimental' innovators. They accumulate knowledge through their careers and find innovative ways to analyze, interpret and distill in new ways of understanding.

32 winners of the Nobel Prize in economics have gone through an examination and found an early peak of winners in their mid-20s and a later peak of winners in their mid-50s.

Different types of creativity

Lead author Bruce Weinberg, professor of economics and public administration at Ohio State University aid that they believe what they find in this study is not limited to economics but could be applied to creativity more generally.

In fact, previous research by his team found similar age-related patterns in other sciences and the arts.

"Various people have this belief that creativity is exclusively linked with youth, but it really depends on what kind of creativity they are talking about," Weinberg said in a university press release.

He found that the younger Nobel Prize winners tend to be "conceptual" innovators who defy conventional wisdom and suddenly come up with new ideas.

Older winners tend to be "experimental" innovators. The authors explained that they accumulate knowledge throughout their careers and find innovative ways to analyze, interpret and distill new ways of understanding.

Difference in peak ages

"If you reach your peak of creativity at the beginning or end of your career, it depends on whether you have a conceptual or experimental approach," said Weinberg.

Most of the other studies in this area have focused on the differences in the maximum ages of creativity in different scientific fields. In general, they have found that creativity in most of the peaks in the mid-30s to early 40s.

"These studies attribute the differences in the creative peaks to the nature of the scientific fields themselves, not to the scientists who perform the work," Weinberg said.

"Our research represents that when you're more creative, it's less a product of the scientific field you're in and it's more about how you approach the work you do," he added.

The new study was published in a special issue of De Economist magazine.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Ageing-well/News/how-does-age-affect-creativity-study-on-nobel-prize-winners-offer-clues-20190526-2