Scientists have discovered a strange connection between alcoholism and genius

Exceptional talent for creativity attributed to harmful addiction

The idea that creative expression and alcohol are linked is commonplace. As you know, the greatest composers had a penchant for strong drinks: Bach drank a lot; Mozart was certainly not a teetotaler. However, they created music that, centuries later, is considered the best of the best. Scientists have tried to find the main triggers of genius.

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Scientist Morten Hesse says there is bias in the research, and the lack of clear-headed authors makes it difficult to scientifically investigate the reader's questions. 

Hesse — one of the leading specialists at the Center for Drug Research at Aarhus University in Denmark. His primary focus is on the psychological problems that arise from drug abuse.

«If you take Mozart and his time, there probably weren't that many abstainers among them. So the likelihood that a great composer will be among them is very small. In those places where great music was created, many drank a lot,” — the researcher emphasizes.

Creative people are often more willing to take risks.

There is plenty of evidence that especially talented people tend to get drunk.

Morten Hesse agrees that they “want to take risks, to experience things and to be stimulated. That’s why they also turn to alcohol and drugs.”

Creative individuals conduct a kind of experiment. However, using drugs or alcohol does not make anyone a writer, composer or artist.

Alcohol does not promote the development of creativity. According to the scientist, “rather the opposite: a person already has creative abilities, and this makes creative people look for drugs.”

Morten Hesse is aware of a number of experiments that studied the effect of alcohol on creativity. There is little evidence that alcohol helps.

As a rule, a person begins to write, draw, or play musical instruments worse.

“Creativity is hard to measure, but when you do it, you use, among other things, special tests in which you try to determine whether subjects have more original ideas or become better at thinking outside the box they have been assigned,” &ldash; explains Hesse.

He mentions a 2017 study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.

In the analysis, researchers served participants hard liquor or beer. The amount of alcohol was equivalent to that of an adult man weighing 75 kilograms drinking half a liter of beer, so there was no significant intoxication.

«Then a test was carried out on the ability to find a connection between three words that are not usually associated with each other.” ;, — explains the researcher.

The researchers also tested the so-called “divergent” thinking and the ability to find new solutions to problems or new ways to use objects.

At the same time, they examined working memory, that is, the ability to stay focused. The results of the data were a simple conclusion — drunkenness only makes a person stupider.