Creativity Test

This is the Divergent Association Task (DAT). You name words that are as unrelated as you can make them, and a computer measures how far apart their meanings are. In the original study, 8,914 people did the task, and their scores showed moderate to strong links with two widely used creativity tests [1]. Coming up with ideas that are far apart is one part of creative thinking; joining distant ideas is thought to be a core part of it [2].

• Type 10 nouns: single English words, no names, no numbers, no specialised technical terms.
• Make them as different from each other as possible, in meaning and in use.
• Only your first 7 valid words are scored, as in the original method. [1] Words that won't count turn red as you add them, so you can replace them.
• There is no time limit. Most people take a few minutes.

Your score is the average distance in meaning between every pair of your scored words, on a 0 to 100 scale. Words from the same area, like "dog" and "cat", sit close together. Words from different worlds, like "dog" and "tax", sit far apart.

We don't compare you with other people. The original study measured meaning with a different word model, so its averages don't apply to these numbers. Compare with your own next try.

No. Divergent thinking tasks like this one point to creative potential, not to creative achievement, and creativity has many other parts, like skill, persistence and judgment [3]. Treat the score as one small window into how widely your mind roams, not a verdict on how creative you are.

Think of the words yourself: the original instructions ask you not to just name objects you can see around you [1]. Misspelled or made-up words won't count, so check the spelling of anything unusual.