Are Right-Brained People Really More Creative? Here’s What the Science Really Tells Us

For years, the phrase “right-brained person” has been used to describe someone who is artistic, imaginative or intuitive, while “left-brained” people are often portrayed as logical, analytical and better with numbers. But does neuroscience actually support this neat division?

Not really.

The human brain does show functional lateralisation, meaning some functions tend to rely more heavily on one hemisphere than the other. Language, for example, is typically more strongly associated with the left hemisphere. But that does not mean that an individual's personality or creativity can be neatly assigned to the right or left side of the brain.

Where did the “right brain = creative” idea come from?

The theory gained popularity from research showing that the two hemispheres can have different specialisations. This was subsequently simplified in popular psychology into the idea that the left brain is logical and the right brain is creative.

Neuroscientific research, however, has repeatedly challenged this binary picture. A review published in PLoS Biology noted that the belief that the right hemisphere is responsible for creativity goes well beyond what the neurological evidence demonstrates. Brain-imaging research instead indicates that creative thinking involves activity across widespread networks, rather than being confined to one hemisphere.

Creativity uses networks, not a single “creative side”

Modern neuroscience increasingly views creativity as a complex cognitive process involving several interacting systems.

Research has linked creative thinking to the default network, a large-scale brain network involved in internally directed thought, imagination and related processes. Studies have also highlighted interactions between the default network and other systems involved in attention, decision-making and executive control.

That means coming up with an original idea isn't simply a matter of switching on the right side of the brain. Instead, different brain systems appear to contribute at different stages of creative thought.

A 2026 meta-analysis examining 787 experiments involving more than 17,000 healthy adults found substantial overlap between brain regions involved in creativity tasks and regions supporting broader cognitive abilities, including semantic knowledge, memory retrieval and executive mechanisms. The findings further challenge the idea of a single, specialised “creativity centre” in the brain.

Does the right hemisphere play any role in creativity?

That does not mean the right hemisphere is irrelevant.

The brain is functionally asymmetric, and certain processes show stronger involvement from one hemisphere. But both hemispheres communicate extensively through connections including the corpus callosum, and many complex cognitive activities involve distributed networks rather than a single side.

Some studies have identified increased activity or connectivity involving right-hemisphere regions during particular types of creative thinking, such as insight. But interpreting those findings as proof that the right hemisphere is the brain's creativity centre would be an oversimplification.

Creativity is more complicated than an IQ-style brain label

A 2024 review in Frontiers in Psychology argued that creativity should not be treated as one single, independent mental faculty located in a particular part of the brain. Instead, creative behaviour can involve multiple cognitive and emotional processes that vary according to the task and context.

For example, writing a song, developing a scientific hypothesis, designing a building and finding an unusual solution to a practical problem may all require creativity—but they do not necessarily rely on precisely the same mental processes.

So, are “right-brained” people more creative?

The science does not support that conclusion.

People certainly differ in their cognitive strengths, interests and creative abilities. And the two hemispheres do have specialised functions. But there is no scientific basis for dividing people into fixed “right-brained creative” and “left-brained logical” personality types.

The more accurate picture is that creativity emerges from cooperation among multiple brain systems, drawing on imagination, memory, knowledge, attention and executive control.

So if someone describes themselves as “right-brained” because they love painting, music or writing, the label may be a useful metaphor—but it should not be mistaken for a neuroscientific diagnosis.