The Wiley Handbook of Genius

4 Psychometric Studies of Scientific Talent and Eminence

Gregory J. Feist

As someone who has studied creativity for more than 25 years, I can say that one of the more common responses I get from people when I tell them what I study is “How can you measure that?” Some ask this with a genuine sense of curiosity; others with a dismissive sense of doubt and skepticism. People are often surprised therefore when I tell them that creativity (and its cousins, talent and genius) can be measured and is in many different ways. Indeed, as Thorndike put it almost than 100 years ago, “If a thing exists, it exists in some amount … and if it exists in some amount, it can be measured” (Thorndike, 1914, p. 141).

As a scientist of creativity and a psychologist of science, I do subscribe to the value and importance of measuring topics empirically and with as much rigor as possible. Scientific talent, eminence, and creativity, while difficult to assess, are assessable and measurable. To be sure, not all assessment techniques are equally reliable and valid, and some lead to more robust conclusions than others do. In this chapter, I overview and summarize some of the distinct methods of assessing scientific talent and attempt to integrate these findings with consensual conclusions.

My primary means of organizing the literature on psychometric studies of scientific talent and genius is by psychological perspective. I conclude there are at least five distinct methods and perspectives: behavioral genetic, ...