{"id":54785,"date":"2021-11-20T04:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T08:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=54785"},"modified":"2021-11-24T16:00:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T20:00:12","slug":"creative-impulse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Humans Have a Natural Creative Impulse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why do people like to be creative?&nbsp;Do you think there is a biological underpinning for the human creative impulse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We, humans, enjoy and take pride in our creativity. The creative impulse dates back to pre-historic times\u2014ancient cave drawings, sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing tools dating back 2.5 million years ago. According to Elizabeth Gilbert, the human proclivity toward creativity is encoded in our DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll explore where the human creative impulse stems from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creativity Is in Our DNA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Gilbert stresses first that <strong>Creative Sorcery naturally seeks out relationships with all humans. <\/strong>You don\u2019t need to be selected by the universe to receive visitations from ideas or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-genius\/\">your genius<\/a>. This is because, according to Gilbert, you and all humans were born with the ability to create and be creative. Forty thousand years ago, our ancestors first executed what could today be classified as \u201cart.\u201d And since then, humans have been making, building, and creating. The push to create is part of our DNA.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: There are additional examples of ancient art beyond the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/photography\/article\/shooting-chauvet-photographing-the-worlds-oldest-cave-art\">forty-thousand-year-old cave paintings in Chauvet-Pont-d\u2019Arc in France<\/a> to which Gilbert is likely referring: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/science\/article\/an-60000-year-old-artistic-movement-recorded-in-ostrich-egg-shells\">ostrich eggshell carvings in Africa<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discovermagazine.com\/planet-earth\/prehistoric-use-of-ochre-can-tell-us-about-the-evolution-of-humans\">covering bodies decoratively in ochre<\/a>, and the creation of <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1007\/978-3-662-07142-7_9\">sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing tools<\/a> 2.5 million years ago. This evidence all supports Gilbert\u2019s notion that humans can\u2019t help but be creative\u2014perhaps even more so than she envisioned.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of your innate creativity, Gilbert says <strong>Creative Sorcery sees your mind as fertile terrain to plant in and will never hold back ideas or your genius<\/strong>. You, therefore, have always had and will always have the tools to create\u2014your creativity and Creative Sorcery\u2014at your disposal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Why Humans Like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-be-more-creative\/\">Being Creative<\/a><\/strong><br><br>Gilbert suggests that Creative Sorcery\u2019s attraction to us is the reason for our creative impulse. An alternative, scientific explanation for humans\u2019 proclivity toward creativity is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theladders.com\/career-advice\/this-study-explains-why-humans-are-creative\">having new ideas triggers the body\u2019s reward system<\/a>. Having an idea feels pleasurable in the same way that good food, drugs, and sex are pleasurable. Because of this pleasurable feeling, we\u2019re enticed to keep having new ideas.<br><br>It also seems that some gain more pleasure from ideas than others. These are the creators who become immersed in or \u201caddicted\u201d to their creative pursuits. They keep working because they desperately want to re-experience that feeling of pleasure that comes with the next big idea. Framed through Gilbert\u2019s lens of Creative Sorcery, these people might enjoy being touched by Creative Sorcery more than others and try to commune with it more often.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do people like to be creative?&nbsp;Do you think there is a biological underpinning for the human creative impulse? We, humans, enjoy and take pride in our creativity. The creative impulse dates back to pre-historic times\u2014ancient cave drawings, sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing tools dating back 2.5 million years ago. According to Elizabeth Gilbert, the human proclivity toward creativity is encoded in our DNA. In this article, we&#8217;ll explore where the human creative impulse stems from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,9,24],"tags":[538],"class_list":["post-54785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-psychology","category-society","tag-big-magic","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Humans Have a Natural Creative Impulse - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We humans enjoy and take pride in our creativity. In this article, we&#039;ll explore where the human creative impulse stems from.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Humans Have a Natural Creative Impulse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We humans enjoy and take pride in our creativity. In this article, we&#039;ll explore where the human creative impulse stems from.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-20T08:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-24T20:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/painting-secret.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Why Humans Have a Natural Creative Impulse\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-20T08:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-24T20:00:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\"},\"wordCount\":440,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/painting-secret.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Big Magic\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"Psychology\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/\",\"name\":\"Why Humans Have a Natural Creative Impulse - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creative-impulse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/painting-secret.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-20T08:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-24T20:00:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"We humans enjoy and take pride in our creativity. 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