Artists, on the other hand, are often seen as being less rational than the rest of us.

This post originally appeared onThe Conversation.

Neuroscience hasalready shownthat everyone uses both sides of the brain when performing any task.

Thats because the exact interplay of nature and nurture is notoriously difficult to tease out.

Psychological research has approached this question by distinguishing between two styles of thinking:convergent and divergent.

The emphasis in convergent thinking is on analytical and deductive reasoning, such as that measured in IQ tests.

Divergent thinking, however, is more spontaneous and free-flowing.

It focuses on novelty and is measured by tasks requiring us to generate multiple solutions for a problem.

An example may bethinking of new, innovative uses for familiar objects.

Studies conducted during the 1960s suggested that convergent thinkers were more likely to be good atscience subjectsat school.

Divergent thinking was shown to be morecommon in the arts and humanities.

However, we are increasingly learning that convergent and divergent thinking styles need not be mutually exclusive.

The study found no difference in ability between the arts and science groups on any of these measures.

Another studyreported no significant differencein measures of divergent thinking between arts, natural science and social science undergraduates.

Flow experience has beenstrongly linked to peak performancein many artistic and creative domains.

There is also substantial overlap in the use of visualization and mental imagery duringscientific and artistic thinking.

Perhaps more obviously, such mental imagery alsofeatures strongly in musical composition,paintingandarchitectural design.

The Power of Stereotyping

Convergent and divergent thinking abilities arent necessarily innate.

MusiciansBrian May,Brian CoxandGreg Graffinall completed science PhDs.

Case studies of scientists engaging in art and vice versa are often presented as being unusual.

Eminent Nobel laureate scientists were almost three times more likely to report such activities.

AsEinstein himself noted: The greatest scientists are artists as well.

Exploding the Myth of Scientific vs.

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