Comedians score high on psychotic traits

Date: Jan-17-2014Perhaps the reason comedians make us laugh is because they show high levels of

psychotic traits, suggests new research from the University of Oxford in the UK.

They also score high on introverted and extroverted personality traits, say the

researchers.

Writing in the latest online issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, the

researchers explain how the popular belief that creativity is linked to madness has led to many

studies, yet despite comedy being a prime example of creativity, little research has been done

specifically on comedy and humor.

Co-author Gordon Claridge, Emeritus Professor of Abnormal Psychology at Oxford's department

of Experimental Psychology, describes what they found:

"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."

But while schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humor, its lesser form can

help people "think outside the box" and associate ideas in odd or unusual ways, he explains,

and adds:

"Equally, manic thinking, which is common in people with bipolar disorder, may help people

combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections."

Study measured aspects of psychosis in comedians, actors and public

For their study, Prof. Claridge and colleagues invited 523 comedians, mainly from the UK, US

and Australia - 404 men and 119 women - to fill in an online questionnaire used to assess

psychotic traits in healthy people.

Funny but psychotic? In the latest study, comedians scored higher on all measures of psychosis, compared with actors and the general public.

The assessment measures four aspects of psychosis:

Unusual Experiences - believing in telepathy and paranormal events.
Cognitive Disorganisation - experiencing difficulty focusing thoughts and being easily

distracted.
Introvertive Anhedonia - possessing a lesser ability to feel social and physical pleasure,

including avoiding intimacy.
Impulsive Non-Conformity - having a tendency towards impulsive, antisocial behaviour.

Prof. Claridge explains that the traits are termed "psychotic" because they "represent

healthy equivalents of features such as moodiness, social introversion and the tendency to

lateral thinking."

He and his colleagues also invited two other groups to fill in the questionnaire: a group of

364 actors (another group used to performing before an audience), and a general group of 831

people in non-creative professions.

Comedians scored much higher on all measures of psychosis

When they analyzed the responses from all the participants, the researchers found that,

compared with the general group, the comedians had much higher scores in all four psychotic

traits.

And unusually, the comedians had high scores for extroverted personality traits (assessed

from their responses on the Impulsive Non-Conformity scale) and introverted personality traits

(assessed by the Introvertive Anhedonia scale).

The actors also showed marked differences to the general group - they scored higher on three

of the scales, but did not show high levels of introverted personality traits.

Prof. Claridge says:

"Our study shows that, as creative people, comedians rate highly on the same personality

traits as those regularly observed in other creative individuals."

Meanwhile, another study reported in October 2013 suggests we have reason to be grateful for

the skill of comedians, as a team of Swiss researchers found that laughter and humor can increase pain

tolerance and improve quality of life.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD




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