Why Do Those Who Sing Have The Blues?

What is the third factor that influences mood and creativity?

Throughout time, there have been countless assumptions about creatives and their mental health, such as the ‘tortured poet’ and the ‘mad scientist’, but are these assumptions true, or is there a third variable in play? And if there is a secret third variable, what could it be? Researchers Paul Verhaeghen, Jutta Joormann, and Rodney Khan put this question to the test by measuring 99 undergraduate students’ depression, creative interests, creative behavior, and self-reflective rumination. Their hypothesis was “that a common underlying psychological characteristic, namely, a tendency for self-reflective rumination, may be the source of this correlation. Specifically, we claimed that self-reflection independently (a) increases the risk for depression and (b) spurs interest in and ability for creative behavior.” (Verhaeghen et al., 229). The results ended up supporting this hypothesis.

Overall, this study has connected mood and creativity to the third factor, self-reflective rumination. “So why do we sing the blues? Our study suggests that we actually do not—it is simply the case that people who are more likely to have the blues are the ones who are more likely to sing”(Verhaeghen et al., 231). So while mood disorders, such as depression, do not cause people to be creative, the self-rumination that comes with mood disorders can lead a person to be more creative.

Works Cited

Verhaeghen, Paul, et al. “Why We Sing the Blues: The Relation between Self-Reflective Rumination, Mood, and Creativity.” Emotion, vol. 5, no. 2, June 2005, pp. 226–232, doi:10.1037/1528-3542.5.2.226.