Divergent thinking in arts and science students: Contrary imaginations at Keele revisited

ABSTRACT

This study replicates, with some modifications, Hartley & Beasley's (1969) study that found that arts students at Keele University differed significantly from science students on two open-ended divergent thinking tests. Students were divided into four groups: those studying (i) pure arts, (ii) arts and social science, (iii) social science and science, and (iv) pure sciences. Weak support was found for the notion that divergent thinking test scores would decline along this arts-science continuum, but the original findings of Hartley & Beasley were supported in that the arts students as a whole scored significantly higher than the science students as a whole on three of the four tests of divergent thinking.