Protestants are 'more creative' than Catholics and Jews

[Graham]

I'd take anything from the Daily Mail, with suspicion. It's a paper of Tory-Public School boy journalists presenting an English equivalent to Fox News.

[tiffin]

I'd take anything from the Daily Mail, with suspicion. It's a paper of Tory-Public School boy journalists presenting an English equivalent to Fox News.

I'm not a fan of the Daily Mail at all, but the research is from Illinois and the Mail is simply reporting the researcher's findings.

[Windischer]

as if protestants were a homogeneous group. lol.

[TheBlondeSalad]

Are Protestants more creative than Catholics and Jews? The internet has been abuzz with reports about a new study purporting to say just that, but the University of Illinois scientists behind the study say their research has been grossly misrepresented.

“We are not saying Protestants are more creative than Catholics or Jews are," study co-author Dr. Dov Cohen, told The Huffington Post in an email. "This is sensationalist and wrong. We did not say this and do not believe it."

So what did the study actually show? That unlike Catholics and Jews, Protestants demonstrate greater creativity when forced to grapple with difficult emotions or with taboo thoughts like incest.

For one part of the study, Cohen and his team had Protestant, Catholic and Jewish men look at an image of a woman -- either a sexy swimsuit model (Michelle Vawer), or a plain-looking woman -- and write about her as if they had known her a long time. The researchers asked some of the men in each group to think of the woman as a sister, the rest to think of her as a girlfriend.

Then all the men were given seven minutes to sculpt something from a ball of clay and five minutes to write a poem. The sculpture and poems were then rated for creativity on a five-point scale by professional artists.

What happened? The Protestant men with taboo thoughts -- those who looked at the sexy image and imagined the woman as their sister -- were judged as more creative than the other Protestants. Curiously, the image of the sexy woman had no effect on the creativity of Catholics and Jews.

Why might this strange creativity boost happen only for Protestants?

"Bad thoughts are likely more threatening to Protestant participants, as compared to Catholic and Jewish participants," Dr. Cohen told The Huffington Post in an email. "Thoughts have a moral status in Protestantism that they do not have in, say, Judaism. This is likely to make a person more prone to pushing these thoughts out of consciousness. The subconscious mind can then take over and work on them."

While Protestants might channel their uncomfortable sexual desire into work (in this case artwork), Catholics and Jews might be more likely to "reflect on the emotion and feel bad about having such a horrible thought or impulse," Dr. Cohen said. Catholics and Jews might be more likely to do something about the feeling -- like confess it, do penance, or reconcile with another person, according to Dr. Cohen.

The research will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3695962.html

The comments are priceless

[Graham]

Are Protestants more creative than Catholics and Jews? The internet has been abuzz with reports about a new study purporting to say just that, but the University of Illinois scientists behind the study say their research has been grossly misrepresented.

“We are not saying Protestants are more creative than Catholics or Jews are," study co-author Dr. Dov Cohen, told The Huffington Post in an email. "This is sensationalist and wrong. We did not say this and do not believe it."

Like I said, Daily Mail is the idiots bible. It can't be trusted to tell proper story.

[Cristiano viejo]

Of the participants, 60 were white Protestants, 40 were white Jews, and 27 were Latino Catholics.

Stupid study. If they had chosen 60 black Protestants and 27 White Catholics, the results would be different.

That's because most proper Protestants are northern European Germanics and they are more creative than Slavs and Mediterraneans.

Since when? perhaps Protestants-Northern Europeans created the European civilization?

Plus, all Protestants once were Catholics. Relating religion with creativity-superiority is stupid.

[Scandalf]

That's because most proper Protestants are northern European Germanics and they are more creative than Slavs and Mediterraneans.

BULL.... But Protestantism did give Germanic people more freedom as opposed to the decadent and Conservative Catholic Mediterraneans.

[Longbowman]

This is all kinds of silly.

[Loki]

Probably because most Protestants are Germanic and industrious.

And Estonians ... created Skype. That's the Lutheran spirit.

[Longbowman]

Probably because most Protestants are Germanic and industrious.

And Estonians ... created Skype. That's the Lutheran spirit.

Most Aframs are Protestant. So are most Nigerians.