Creative people more attractive to others

I’m the proverbial ‘suit’, working on marketing and business strategies. Much of my work deals with helping my clients push marketing messages through to their customers, hoping to catch them (the customers) at the right place, at the right time, and win them over. My work is not perceived to be creative. Creativity is reserved for creative people; I’m not one of them.

A conservative view, no doubt. I didn’t let it bother me until I read this BBC news story, ‘Creative people luckier in love’, which openly stated, “the more creative a person is, the more sexual partners they are likely to have.” Apparently, “artists and poets had an average of four to 10 sexual partners, compared to three for non-creative types.”

The sub-head announced, “If you are hoping to improve your love life, it may be wise to develop artistic traits, researchers suggest.” I didn’t need to hear this. 46 and single, I felt lonely – even jealous.

Dr Daniel Nettle, who was a part of the team which researched this phenomenon, explained, “Creative types lead a bohemian lifestyle and tend to act on more sexual impulses and opportunities, often purely for experience’s sake, than the average person would.” He went on to add, “It’s common to find that this sexual behaviour is tolerated. Partners, even long-term ones, are less likely to expect loyalty and fidelity from them.”

Professor John Gruzelier, professor of psychology at Imperial College London, gave a somewhat contrary point of view, saying, “…some arts required introversion. Some creative people, such as artists and writers, are solitary people. They are almost hermit-like. That’s partly because they are so driven. Their art is all they want to do.”

Confused? Well, as usual, there was a perfectly good reason for this contrary behaviour. Creative people could be displaying the ‘positive side’ of their personality traits seen in schizophrenia, the article stated. Would this be such a good thing after all? Not so sure now. I think I’ll stick to my marketing and business strategies for the time being.