Creativity and tolerance of ambiguity in fashion design students

Creativity is the development of new ideas and original products in a novel and appropriate way. A creative fashion designer needs traits that encourage evolution of creative ideas and concepts during the design process. This research examined creativity and tolerance of ambiguity in fashion design students via an online survey. The final sample consisted of 100 students from ten universities with fashion design progams. Fashion design students did not differ in tolerance of ambiguity based on level in school. Participants were divided into four creativity groups based on mean and standard deviation of the Iowa Inventiveness Inventory. The highest creativity group scored highest on tolerance of ambiguity; the lowest creativity group scored lowest on tolerance of ambiguity. Results of this study support that creative individuals are more tolerant of ambiguity than less creative individuals.