Comedians more likely to have ‘psychotic’ traits, says study
Successful comedians have personality traits which fit with what psychiatrists would describe as “psychotic”, a new study says – but experts warn against the stereotype of the “mad creative genius”.
It’s the eternal mystery: what makes some things funny and others fall completely flat.
But now a new study from scientists at the University of Oxford suggests that there could be a link between the cognitive links behind humour and what are known as “psychotic” traits.
Professor Gordon Claridge, who led the study at the University of Oxford’s experimental psychology department, said: “The creative elements needed to produce humour are strikingly similar to those characterising the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”
The creative elements needed to produce humour are strikingly similar to those characterising the cognitive style of people with psychosis. Professor Gordon Claridge, University of Oxford
In the study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the scientists analysed comedians from Australia, Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group who had non-creative jobs.
The traits included a tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behaviour, and an inclination to avoid intimacy. Although these characteristics are known as psychotic, actually they can represent healthy equivalents of features such as moodiness, social introversion and the tendency to lateral thinking.
“Although schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humour, in its lesser form it can increase people’s ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think ‘outside the box’,” said Professor Claridge.
“Equally, manic thinking – which is common in people with bipolar disorder – may help people combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections.”
The researchers pointed to the example of the late Spike Milligan, star of The Goon Show, who had manic depression. He “used the freely associating thought processes of his manic states to generate the zany humour and the wildly ridiculous ideas that were the hallmark of his depression”.
‘Unusual experiences’
The researchers asked 523 comedians – 404 men and 119 women – to complete an online questionnaire which measures psychotic traits in healthy people.
The traits scored were “unusual experiences”, such as belief in telepathy and paranormal events, “cognitive disorganisation” such as difficulty in focusing thoughts, “introvertive anhedonia” – reduced ability to feel social and physical pleasure – and “impulsive non-conformity”, or tendency towards impulsive, antisocial behaviour.
Actors, a group also used to performing in front of an audience, were also asked to complete the questionnaire. In total, 364 did so, and these results were compared against those of the comedians as well as another group of 831 people who had non-creative jobs.
Paul Jenkins, chief executive of the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: “These are interesting findings, but we must make sure we guard against the ‘mad creative genius’ stereotype. Mental illnesses like schizophrenia can affect anyone, whether they are creative or not.
“Our knowledge and understanding of mental illness still lags far behind our understanding of physical illnesses, and what we really need is much more research in this area.”