Data from: Playfulness, ideas and creativity: a survey

This paper investigates whether self-reports about playfulness are related to self-reports about creativity and the alternate uses of objects. An on-line survey was conducted of how people think about themselves. 1536 people completed the survey. They were asked whether a variety of statements were very characteristic of themselves through to whether they were very uncharacteristic. Respondents were then asked to offer alternative uses for two different objects. Those people who characterised themselves as being playful clearly thought of themselves as being creative. The self-reports of their playfulness, creativity and innovation were positively correlated with each other and were validated with their suggested uses for two different objects. Personality measures were derived from the respondents’ self-assessments. On the Openness scale the measure was positively correlated with the respondents’ assessments of their own playfulness and with the number of alternative uses for two objects.