Creativity (scientific, artistic, general) and risk tolerance among engineering and music students

The purpose of this study was to examine similarities and differences in general, artistic and scientific creativity among engineering and music college students. These findings were then compared with published normative data for general, artistic and scientific creativity. Next, differences and similarities were explored in relation to specializations in majors. Last, demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity and age) were investigated in relation to the different levels of general, artistic and scientific creativity.; One hundred music and one hundred five engineering college students from a large, Northeastern university completed a demographic questionnaire, two general creativity instruments, a cognitive tolerance instrument, a musical creativity instrument, and an engineering creativity instrument. MANOVAs were performed for the general creativity measures and major while ANOVAs were performed for scientific and artistic creativity measures and major.; Results indicated that musicians scored higher in general and artistic creativity while there were no significant differences in scientific creativity for musicians and engineers. Participants scored higher than the normative data in general, artistic and scientific creativity. Overall, no specialization with each major significantly tended to favor general, artistic or scientific creativity. There were no significant differences in general, scientific or artistic creativity between genders. However, gender distributions varied among major. Caucasians scored significantly higher in general and scientific creativity in both engineering and music groups however, there were less minority participants in both engineering and music groups. Age stratification found no significant differences in general, artistic and scientific creativity in relation to age groups.; Educators and psychologists could apply these findings in the understanding of specific components of general, scientific and artistic creativity in engineering (scientific) students and music (artistic) students. Music college students tended to score higher in both general and artistic creativity in comparison with engineers. Additional implications suggested by the data are that artists tend to have higher levels of general and artistic creativity while scientists do not necessarily have more scientific creativity in comparison with artists.