Association of Synesthesia and Creativity amongst a General Population

Association of Synesthesia and Creativity amongst a General Population

Synesthesia occurs when a single stimulus triggers two or more sensations simultaneously in different modalities. Ramachandran and Hubbard (2001) have identified two types of grapheme(alphanumeric)-color synesthetes. The first, known as ‘lower synesthetes’ or ‘projectors’ report actually seeing the colors when visually encountering letters or numbers. The second type, known as ‘higher synesthetes’, report only experiencing the colors “in the mind’s eye”, which indicates the color is evoked simply by numerical concept, as opposed to visual appearance alone. Creativity’s relationship to synesthesia has been the subject of interest of many experts in the field. Here, we evaluated the frequency of synesthesia amongst a general population. In contrast to the available research, the sample did not consist of self-reported synesthetes. Additionally, both synesthetes and non-synesthetes were compared in regards to their creative abilities. It was hypothesized that synesthetes would score higher on measures of creativity and that there would be a higher incidence of synesthesia than previously reported. Our findings indicate that 5% of the sample demonstrated “lower” synesthetic ability and independently, 5% demonstrated “higher” synesthetic ability. No participants demonstrated both high and low synesthetic abilities. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between lower (but not higher) synesthetes and creativity as measured by the Alternate Uses Test ( p