ONE hundred and two is the number of names British artist Tracey Emin sewed into her tent, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995. Artists and poets have a reputation for having a high sex drive. Now Daniel Nettle of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Helen Keenoo of the Open University, both in the UK, have added support to the idea.
They asked 425 British people, including artists and poets, how many sexual partners they鈥檇 had (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3349). Professional artists and poets averaged 4 to 10 sexual partners, other people averaged only 3. 鈥淲hat we seem to have established is that artists and poets are, amongst other things, horny old toads,鈥� Nettle says.
Volunteers were also assessed for character traits associated with schizophrenia which has previously been linked to creativity. Some professional artists and poets scored as highly on these measures as people with schizophrenia did.
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Combined with a high sex drive this may explain the persistence of schizophrenia in the population, says Nettle.
New Scientist asked Tracey Emin to comment on the results and she denied that she has more sex than the general population. 鈥淚n fact, I do everything to avoid it,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 because I don鈥檛 want to have sex with most people. I want angels, giants, tigers, and I would love to love myself.鈥�
