Divergent thinking: the type of thinking based on creativity

April 4, 2024

Many times we talk about thought as if it were one of the exclusive characteristics of our species. However, this is lacking, given that on the one hand many nonhuman animals also think, and on the other there is not a single thought, but several types of this.

Then we will see the characteristics of divergent thinking , very related to creativity, and how it differs from the so-called convergent thinking.

Related article: "The 14 keys to enhance creativity

Sequential thinking

The thought is, basically, verbal behavior . Although we are not talking or writing, we use language to come up with ideas and "mental images" by combining concepts. This process by which we arrive at conclusions conjugating categories and meanings occurs in all forms of thought. However, what does vary is the style, the procedure with which we use the language to create new information.

Normally, this process is sequential. In the first place, we start from an already verbalized fact, and from it we generate a chain of conclusions. For example:

We need onions to cook.
It's Sunday and the stores have closed.
The neighbors can leave us a piece of onion.
The neighbor with whom we get better lives on the floor above.
We must go to the floor above to ask for onions.

The language is key in this operation, since each of the concepts (onion, neighbors, etc.) has in its meaning elements that help us to weave a line of reasoning. For example, the onion is a small object that can fit in a house or a store, and the neighbors are people, not places that are not available on Sundays.

This style of thinking is usually called convergent thinking, given that of all the semantic elements of each concept, you always choose the one that fits in a clear line of reasoning , which has a clear meaning and relevance in a chain of operations. For example, in this case we do not care if the onions are brown, since that does not have important implications for the operation of getting one of these ingredients.

Perhaps you are interested: "Meditation as a remedy against fanaticism"

The divergent thinking

Divergent thinking, as its name suggests, is not guided by the logic of making semantics fit into a more or less rigid scheme in order to arrive at a very specific question and with a very limited number of answers. On the contrary: in this case, the dispersion is sought, the generation of paths of thought radically different from each other.

In divergent thinking you do not go on a cognitive track that goes from point A (missing onion) to point B (get this element). Instead of starting from a conceptual process by which we want to pass certain ideas, we start from a stimulus from which many different ideas can be released.

For example, before the image of a coffee machine, we can start to devise different uses for that object: that is divergent thinking and, in fact, this kind of exercises are the ones proposed to measure creativity from the tests of Sternberg's triarchic intelligence.

The importance of this cognitive process in creativity

There is no doubt that the habitual use of convergent thinking is indispensable for our survival. After all, we do not live in an ideal world in which we can be creating new ideas with total freedom by the simple fact of doing it; we need to respond to specific needs that require certain actions and not others.

However, divergent thinking is also important if we do not want to live our whole lives on presuppositions that are given from outside. Lateral thinking allows us to deconstruct ideas that seemed self-evident until we decided to break them down into several cognitive paths that until now were unexplored.

This is useful in art, for example, since it is a form of expression based on the innovative use of already known elements (lights, colors, textures ...). But it is also useful in our day to day life.

For example, thanks to divergent thinking we can see our own identity in a radically different way, create alternative narratives of what happened . Some that are not necessarily false, but as appropriate as those that until then only remained valid because they did not have explanations that would rival them.

In addition, divergent thinking helps to question one's own ideology, the moral and political lens through which we see reality. This makes us more sensitive to other people's ideas whose ideas, although we do not share, we can come to understand and, from there, find ways to empathize.

From all this it follows that Cognitive creativity is the best antidote against fanaticism . The reason is simple: it puts in check any dogma and helps to detect explanations that are not based on the elaborate beliefs of systems of ideas imposed by sects, small groups that punish the diversity of opinions and other similar social circles. For that reason, divergent thinking is something to claim.