Marriage may tame genius

Here’s an interesting article I found:

Marriage may tame genius
Thursday, 10 July 2003

Creative genius and crime express themselves early in men but both are turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, a study says.

Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work.

The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein, who wrote in 1942: “A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.”

“Scientific productivity indeed fades with age,” Dr Kanazawa says.

“Two-thirds (of all scientists) will have made their most significant contributions before their mid-30s.”

But, regardless of age, the great minds who married virtually kissed goodbye to making any further glorious additions to their CV.

Within five years of making their nuptial vows, nearly a quarter of married scientists had made their last significant contribution to history’s hall of fame.

“Scientists rather quickly desist (from their careers) after their marriage, while unmarried scientists continue to make great scientific contributions later in their lives,” says Dr Kanazawa.

The energy of youth and the dampening effect of marriage, he adds, are also remarkably similar among geniuses in music, painting and writing, as well as in criminal activity.

Previous studies have documented that delinquents are overwhelmingly male, and usually start out on the road to crime in their teens.

But those who marry well, subsequently stop committing crime, whereas criminals at the same age who remain unmarried tend to continue their unlawful careers.

Dr Kanazawa suggests “a single psychological mechanism” is responsible for this: the competitive edge among young men to fight for glory and gain the attention of women.

That craving drives the all-important male hormone, testosterone.

Dr Kanazawa theorises after a man settles down, the testosterone level falls, as does his creative output.

The study appears in in the August issue of the Journal of Research in Personality, published by the Elsevier group.

The British weekly New Scientist reports on it in its upcoming issue on Saturday.

I realise I probably brought this up to feel better about the fact that I don’t have a girlfriend, but nonetheless it seems sensible. What do you think ? Crackpot or genius ?

Yes all those scientists are one insane bunch of testosterone driven men. You can see all that testosterone in action at those university Labs :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Maby the reason women love “bad boys” is nature’s way of crime prevention.

Or Women are excited by excitment.

For example bad boys are more reckless and notice one feels more out of control and excited when sitting in the passenger seat of a car driven by a reckless driver or bad boy rather then in one driven by a good boy obeying all the rules and laws.

It comes down to sex. It isn’t the general bad boy that women crave, its the implication that the bad boy is going to “do” her well because he’s wild in every other way. I’d be happy to detail exactly what that entails if anyone is interested in learning how to be a “bad boy” where it counts…

dang… there’s me bein a good boy…
ah well…

sex isn’t the most important thing for woman… is it?

is it???

:frowning: :confused: :confused: :astonished:

willem

of course not :wink:
see, for women its not necessarily important TO have sex. we don’t tend to think in terms of “getting laid”
its just that IF we have sex, then it’s important to have GOOD sex. subtle, yet important difference between men and women.

not too long ago i was talking to my friend about the various states of mind he gets into depending on what sort of relationships he has with women… he feels the most intellectually productive/creative/thoughtful when in the pursuit of a woman… he generally terms this “being inspired” (and i don’t mean inspired to write hallmarky poetry)… however when either going out with a girl or when not having a girl to seek the inspiration dies down

According to my understanding of Freud’s theories, there is something, called sublimation, that explains art, sciecne, and other evolutionnary progress. Sublimation actually happens when one needs to live, to fulfill his sexual pulsions, but can’t actually live them in their normal way. what happens is that these pulsions are transfigured, so they can be expressed in a socially acceptable way.

This could also be true with those who get married. If I have no one next to me, with whom I can cuddle, that is the receptable of both my sexual and emotionnal impulses, I have to express these needs in another way (by example, creating the relativity theory).

Also, we must not forget that being married actually means losing time in intellectual evolution. You must spend more time on down-to-earth matters, such as getting a good salary, feeding your babies, making sure your partner is happy, cleaning the household, maybe attaining the kid’s ball prom, etc.

While someone living alone and caring only for himself and his works can concentrate in this very domain.

I think that relationships are much like a lot of things in life. They take tremendous focus and attention if you want to do them well. Having a successful and permanent relationship demands a great deal of time and energy be invested in the relationship. It is a true “labor of love”. I also think that it is only in a long-term relationship that a man comes to know enough about one particular woman to actually begin to know and understand that one woman, and to discover the ultimate joy that comes from such a relationship. I know many men who have had short-term relationships with lots of lovers. I once knew a gay man who claimed to have a dozen or more sexual partners in a single evening. I felt nothing but pity for him. He had never had a loving relationship with another adult. He had missed out on some of the greatest gifts that life has to offer a man. Not because he was gay but rather because he was a sexual addict who was promiscuous to the point of obsession, and it had prevented him from ever forming a lasting long-term relationship.

It seems completely predictable to me that men cannot devote the sort of single-minded immersion in math or science or almost anything that it takes to achieve original insights, and/or creative break-throughs while carrying on a successful long-term, loving relationship with a woman. The two are in constant conflict with one another. I offer this as an explanation moreso than any physiological hormonal explanation. Those men who refuse to provide their marriage with the sort of commited devotion that it requires will almost certainly end in divorce.

It is a sign of our times that people want things to come quick and easy. But the life-long bonding of a man and woman is an extremely complex and delicate process that requires a great deal of determined effort and work. It is neither quick nor easy and if neglected in favor of almost anything else, it will suffer. However, I reccomend it as a path to some of the greatest joys that life has to offer.