Who is the innovator? How do life-history, demographics, risk-taking propensity, and attention and hyperactivity symptoms impact innovativeness

Outlining the profiles of those driving innovations within the members of a social system is crucial for understanding cultural change. In the pursuit of understanding innovativeness as a personality trait, efforts have produced a short self-report scale that yields an innovativeness score composed of two factors: ‘creativity and originality’ and ‘willingness to try new things.’ This study examines how life-history and demographic variables, risk taking propensity, and symptoms of the inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive disorder (ADHD) impact innovativeness. Our findings suggest that innovators are those individuals aged between 18 and 50, whose sex assigned at birth is female and identify as non-binary, have fewer siblings and offspring, and are in committed relationships, as opposed to being single. Moreover, innovators exhibit tendencies towards social and recreational risk-taking, while being ethically risk averse. Lastly, individuals displaying symptoms of inattentive ADHD show a decline in innovativeness.