Think you’re a creative person? Well, we have some bad news for you. New research claims to have found a link between artistic ability and psychopathic behaviour; with the two apparently sharing a number of key traits. According to a study at De La Salle University in Manila, creative individuals require higher levels of emotional disinhibition, dishonesty and risk taking to cultivate their talents. All of which makes them significantly more likely to be (actual) psychopaths. 

“We argue that emotional disinhibition, in the form of psychopathic boldness, is actually integral to some creative personalities and functionally related to the creative process,” explains the study, which was published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal. “Generally then, a creative field might not just shape a person into a more arrogant or dishonest personality, it might be actively selecting them, not for the sake of having disagreeable traits, but because such traits meaningfully co-vary with creativity itself.”

The research, which was led by psychologist Adrianne John Galang, claims that creative people are more likely to be ‘prosocial’ psychopaths, rather than ‘antisocial’. This means that they don’t necessarily require the cruelty and meanness that would link them to the latter.

The conclusion was drawn after researchers conducted two separate experiments. The first asked 503 participants a series of questions designed to find ‘dark’ traits; including narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. The second looked specifically at psychopathy in 250 college students.

“We show, antisocial behaviours of the kind associated with psychopathic meanness and disinhibition do not seem essential to the creative personality. Instead, they just happen to coincide with it,” the study clarified. “If the model proves useful going forward, it might be the cultivation of forms of boldness, while seeking to mitigate the more harmful forms of disinhibition, which would be the key to fostering creativity in both educational and professional settings.”