Is the secret to creativity being a little sullen? New research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences has examined three different types of elusive social behavior and found that one of them is associated with a higher level of creativity: being unsociable.
When people choose to be alone, they generally do so for one of three reasons: they are shy, they dislike interacting with others, or they like to spend time alone. Are these three categories related to negative psychological outcomes? This was the starting point of the study.
Many of us tend to think of loneliness as undesirable, and some studies confirm that too much loneliness is detrimental to health. But the new study, led by Julie Bowker, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Buffalo in New York, has found positive associations in a specific form of social isolation.
Not all loneliness is bad, “motivation matters”
“During childhood and adolescence, the idea is that if you are straying too far from your peers, you are missing out on positive interactions such as receiving social support, developing social skills and other benefits of interacting with your peers,” Bowker explains. “This may be why so much emphasis has been placed on the negative effects of avoiding isolation from peers.”
However, “we have to understand why someone is pulling away or isolating themselves, to understand the associated risks and benefits. Motivation matters,” says Bowker.
In their study, the experts asked 295 participants to complete a series of questionnaires about their motivation for wanting to be alone, and their creativity, sensitivity to anxiety, predisposition to depression and social anhedonia, that is, lack of pleasure or fun in social activities.
The participants were “emerging adults”, with an average age of 19.31 years . Bowker and his colleagues also evaluated the so-called behavioral activation systems (BAS) and behavior inhibition systems (BIS) of these participants (which serve to distinguish between different types of social withdrawal).
The results revealed that unsociable people were more likely to be highly creative. This is “the first evidence of a potential benefit” from being unsociable.
In contrast, being shy and avoiding relating to others were negatively correlated with creativity, meaning that the more shy or elusive a person is, the less likely they are to be creative.
“Shy and avoidant people may be unable to use their solitary time happily and productively, perhaps because they are distracted by their negative cognitions and fears. In contrast, unsociable young people spend more time alone than with others, but not they are antisocial. They do not initiate the interaction, but they do not reject the social invitations of their colleagues, “says Bowker.
“ Therefore, unsociable individuals can have enough peer interaction that when they are alone, they can enjoy that solitude. They can think creatively and develop new ideas, like an artist in a studio,” concludes Bowker.
Referencia: How BIS/BAS and psycho-behavioral variables distinguish between social withdrawal subtypes during emerging adulthood. Julie Bowker et al. Personality and Individual Differences 2017 DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.043
