Creativity, perhaps more than any other human trait, separates humans from other animals. And death, it seems at least, is the destoyer of all creativity. After all, a person obviously can't be creative if they are dead. (I like to wow people with obvious statements).
Yet, recent research suggests that death might impact creativity in a unique way.
Clay Routledge is a professor of psychology at South Dakota State. He and his colleagues have tested the role that reminding people that they will die plays in their creativity.
In one study, people were reminded of death or another, aversive, control topic. They then were given the opportunity to design a t-shirt and were told to try and be as creative as possible.
If creativity protects people from death anxiety, then giving people the chance to be creative should make people respond less strongly to death reminders. Specifically, past research shows that having people write about their own death increases defense of their belief systems, such as Americans becoming more hostile towards an anti-American essay. So, creativity should reduce this effect of thinking about one's own death.
This is exactly what this research found. People who were given a chance to be creative did not show increased worldview defense when death was salient.
In other words, not only might death reminders fuel creativity, but creativity appears to protect people from mortality concerns.
It is perhaps not surprising then that so many people have an increased need and desire for creativity when they are diagnosed with a terminal illness.
