Brazilian creativity mapped

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Faber Castell carried out a survey, through the MindMiners platform, about our relationship with creativity: “Brazilians + creativity: who they are, where they live, what they think”. The survey was carried out with 600 people, completely online, between September 5 and 19, 2022, and the researchers sought, in the study design, to present an aligned and representative profile of the population connected with internet access.

The research sample is composed of 48% men and 52% women. Of these, 42% are Millennials (20 to 41 years old), 29% are Generation X (42 to 57 years old), 23% are Generation Z (16 to 25 years old) and 6% Baby Boomers (58 to 76 years old).

Regarding class, 45% are from class C and 55% from classes A and B. The people who participated in the survey are regionally distributed as follows:

48% live in the Southeast of the country
23% not Northeast
15% in the south
9% not Center-West
5% not North

It’s hard to give a single definition for creativity, but we can talk about how it’s perceived. And that’s what the Faber Castell survey did: it raised the participants’ perceptions.

And do you know what the researchers found?

Almost all participants (96%) agree that creativity is not only an artistic ability, but also innovation and problem solving.

That’s right: you don’t have to sing, dance or paint to be creative. If you face everyday problems with mastery, you are indeed a very creative person.

And the good thing is that creativity can be developed. Of the survey participants, 85% agree that it is a skill that can be trained. At the same time, many people (63% of participants) believe that creativity is a gift.

And don’t think that creativity is something for children or young people. It can, and should, be developed at all stages of life. There’s still a lot to discover about creativity, but take it as a fact.

By the way, did you know that creativity has already been studied by NASA? The study pointed out that childhood is the phase of life in which creativity is considered to be more developed. What happens is that throughout life we find or create blocks to our creativity, and while 98% of children up to five years old are considered highly creative, only 2% of people over 25 years old earn this same classification by NASA respondents. The answer to this discrepancy? Mental blocks.

In the Faber Castell survey, this same percentage (2%) corresponds to the Third Age phase. For the interviewees, the most creative phase of life is childhood (5%), followed by adolescence (27%) and adulthood (20%), to then reach the Third Age as the least phase – much less, as the respondents believe. 600 interviewed by the company – creative.

We need to remember that these percentages are perceptions, not reality. But it is still a (sad) indication of how people deal with and face the issue of creativity, as well as maturity.

Stop to think: do you like to read, or did you like it better? It is also possible that he does not have much time to read, or that he only reads technical books because he “became an adult”. We bet, however, that every now and then you remember a book title, a story passage or a character that you met in childhood or adolescence, and that reference appears somewhat clandestinely when you are dealing with a problem. The tendency is to stifle this memory to devote full attention to the “serious” subject, but have you ever tried giving this memory a chance and imagining what the character in the book (and it doesn’t even have to be the main one) would do in your place? Try it, even quietly or mentally. After all, no one is obliged to declare their creative methods. And you might be surprised.

In childhood we are encouraged to create, even with materials such as scissors, pencil and paper, but over time this “boldness” is repressed, often until it disappears completely. It’s no secret that we tend, over time, to devote less attention to activities that encourage us to develop something new.

Reverse that logic today! Dare to dedicate a part of your day, even a small one, to the exercise of creativity.

But what about people who don’t consider themselves creative? You’re one of them? Faber Castell’s research pointed out that the main barriers to creativity are:

fear of making mistakes/failing: 48%
lack of stimuli/incentives: 43%
fear of rejection/disapproval: 38%

This difference between how we perceive creativity and the importance we give to it (and that it deserves!) is an equation that needs to be solved, and you can do it.

Of those interviewed by Faber Castell. 90% consider creativity important for everyday life. She is, like, the icing on the cake, alongside soft skills like: (1) ability to learn; (2) resilience; (3) use and development of technologies; (4) problem solving; (5) critical thinking; (6) analytical thinking and logical reasoning and (6) leadership.

creative mom and dad

Do you know what else the Faber Castell survey pointed out? That fathers and mothers value creativity more and consider themselves more creative, and also declare to create more.

This index is high: 82% of the participants totally or partially agree that they have creativity – while among people who don’t have children, this percentage is 60%.

A possible explanation for this number is that parenting forces people to cross the barrier of fears and insecurities. Also, being a parent frees the inner child, also unleashing the imagination.

You must be wondering how to seek inspiration or strong references for creativity. The answer is already there: creativity and inspiration are everything in this life.

But some specific sources can help a little more, and respondents recognize this: 45% look for inspiration in digital social networks.

Of course, there are differences according to age group, and one fact stands out in the survey: 40% of young people between 18 and 24 years old (Generation Z) have switched from Google to TikTok, and this information was shared by the president of the seeker, Prabhakar Raghavam.

And what is consumed on TikTok? A survey by Opinion Box raised the main themes and contents: firstly, humor; in second, music, and in third, tourism.

Music is also a representative source of inspiration (32%), distributed between generations as follows:

40% Generation Z
33% Millenials
22% Generation X
19% Baby Boomers

… as well as movies, series and theater plays: 34% of respondents are inspired by them, and in the generational division this percentage looks like this: