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Why is creativity attractive in a potential mate?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2008

Daniel Nettle
Daniel Nettle
Affiliation:
Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4HH, United Kingdom. [email protected]
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Abstract

A number of studies suggest that women find artistically creative men attractive, especially in the short-term mating context. Artistic creativity (but not mathematical or technical creativity) is linked to psychosis-proneness. I hypothesise that in preferring artistically creative men, women may be choosing paternal genotypes that make babies that are not excessively somatically demanding on them.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , June 2008 , pp. 275 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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