Creativity Predicts a Longer Life

It's important to note that this is a preliminary finding, based on weak evidence, and that "creativity" is not necessarily the core concept of "openness" in the OCEAN five-factor model of human personality. The "big five" personality model is still developing,<p><a href="http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/2008chapter.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/2008chapter.pdf</a><p>and "openness" is the most poorly defined of the five personality factors in the model. It is plain, on stronger and better replicated evidence, that the factor "neuroticism" is a risk factor for many bad outcomes, including shorter lifespan. Some investigators have proposed specific interventions to reduce neuroticism in the general population.<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792076/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792076/</a><p>The relationship of "openness" to creativity is still debatable, and still more debatable is the relationship of openness (or creativity) to mortality.<p>I should also note that the study described in the article kindly submitted here doesn't allow for the causal inference, or verify the proposed mechanism, made in the quoted statements in the article.

That word "Predicts" is dangerous. It strongly suggests causation, though it only reflects a statistical correlation.<p>Many external causes are known to negatively effect both creativity and life-span. Most chronic illnesses reduce both. Alcoholism reduces both. Genetic disorders such as Down's syndrome or Huntington's reduce both.<p>Given many known mechanisms for external factors causing both factors in a correlation study, and only speculative mechanisms for how one factor causes the other, even hinting at causation is bad journalism.

&#62; Creativity Predicts a Longer Life<p>False! Creativity is <i>correlated</i> with a longer life.<p>&#62; A large body of research <i>links</i> neuroticism with poorer health and conscientiousness with superior health. [Emphasis added.]<p>There's that word again -- "links". Neuroticism is not <i>linked</i> with poorer health, it is <i>correlated</i> with poorer health.<p>And so forth -- frankly, the linked article is a piece of pseudoscientific trash.<p>Psychologists would be so much happier if there simply wasn't any science at all, rather than the kind they practice -- the kind that avoids control groups, experimental discipline, can't seem to express correlations accurately, and draw nonsense conclusions like this:<p>"...the results suggest that practicing creative-thinking techniques could improve anyone's health by lowering stress and exercising the brain."<p>Without a control group, without a disciplined, prospective, double-blind, replicated study, the "results" suggest no such thing. Isn't obvious that creative thinking may be an effect, not a cause, of good physical and mental health?<p>Reading articles like this, I begin to suspect that in school, psychologists are told, "say the word 'science' a lot -- that's how you do science."

Maybe we shouldn't be so scared about dying and instead try to make the most out of our (supposedely short) lives. After all, a guy like Alexander the Great was only in his early 30s when he had already conquered half of the known-world (yes, this is a Euro-centrist view)