The sexual habits of creative types.

Part of my personal routine in an effort to keep reasonably well informed is to read a slew of magazines. My favorites are The Economist and Business Week but the list does not stop there and includes The New Scientist for keeping track of what the fine people who practice the scientific method are up to. They are worth keeping an eye on. These are the people who did not just come up with the iPod, but zealously invented nuclear weapons.

According to Wikipedia, a scientist is a person who is expert in an area of science who uses the scientific method in research. Upon the request of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1833, William Whewell invented the English word “scientist;” before this time the only terms in use were “natural philosopher” and “man of science.”

Be that as it may, yesterday I ran across a New Scientist article which made my eyes come out on stalks and dance the rumba.

Let me quote from this highly respected publication:

“ONE hundred and two is the number of names British artist Tracey Emin sewed into her tent, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995. Artists and poets have a reputation for having a high sex drive. Now Daniel Nettle of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Helen Keenoo of the Open University, both in the UK, have added support to the idea.

They asked 425 British people, including artists and poets, on many sexual partners they'd had (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3349) Professional artists and poets averaged 4 to 10 sexual partners, other people averaged only 3. "What we seem to have established is that artists and poets are, amongst other things, horny old toads," Nettle says.

Volunteers were also assessed for character traits associated with schizophrenia which has previously been linked to creativity. Some professional artists and poets scored as highly on these measures as people with schizophrenia did.

Combined with a high sex drive this may explain the persistence of schizophrenia in the population, says Nettle.

New Scientist asked Tracey Emin to comment on the results and she denied that she has more sex than the general population. “In fact, I do everything to avoid it,” she says. “That’s because I don’t want to have sex with most people. I want angels, giants, tigers, and I would love to love myself.”