I did an informal survey (n=61) asking people about their creative achievements and then compared it to their personalities as measured by the AB5C scales. Here are the results:

Key Findings

• The various facets of openness best predicted creative achievement.
• There appears to be some truth to the stereotype that creative people are more messy. However, they often do appear to be conscientious in other ways.
• The creative people in this sample were more neurotic on average, but not enough to settle the debate over whether depression can fuel creativity.
• Interestingly, it wasn’t the creativity facet that had the strongest correlation, it was imagination.

Creativity asks where you agree with statements such as:

• “I like to solve complex problems.”
• “I ask questions no one else does.”
• “I know the answers to many questions.”

While imagination includes statements such as:

• “I have a vivid imagination.”
• “I need a creative outlet.”
• “I believe in the importance of art.”

So it kind of makes sense why imagination was a better predictor. Perhaps these traits need better names — I’d suggest “ingenuity” rather than “creativity”, and “creativity” rather than “imagination”.