Symmetry...a creativity must?

Creativity and symmetry...can one exist without the other? Well... yes and no. As everything related to creativity there is no clear answer...and I should know as I have been studying creativity for the past 4years! Yet, symmetry is not something that can or should be ignored...my participants surely did not shy away from expressing their strong opinions about symmetry when judging the CBoard Cards. Let's examine these two composition cards closely.

The card on left scored lower (2.3/somewhat creative) while the one on the right was perceived as moderately creative reaching a 4.0/5.0 score. If you ask me...a significant difference between the two. So why one over the other? In one word: Symmetry. My participants used symmetry as a judgement descriptor to justify both the lower and the higher scores. Let me explain...as one of my participants commented on the left card "no, I don't think this is creative, the symmetry bothers me". On the other hand, symmetry was exactly why other participants liked the one on the right. If you think that this does not make sense...you are not the only one. The data puzzled me too but then...it hit me: participants were using 'symmetry' quantifiers. Could there be a symmetry cutoff point when it comes to judging a creative outcome? Do we perceive two types of symmetry? The positive kind that makes us believe something is creative and some kind of a negative symmetry that just does not impress us? So does a product have to be symmetric in order for us to perceive as creative? My conclusion: P

perhaps...as long as it is not too symmetric

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