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Marriage May Tame Genius

Posted by michael on from the ball-and-chain dept.

theodp writes "Here's one to share with the wife and kids. Using a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand has concluded that creative genius is turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, regardless of age."

3 of 941 comments (clear)

  1. Just one point though.. by sonali · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dr Kanazawa suggests "a single psychological mechanism" is responsible for this: the competitive edge among young men to fight for glory and gain the attention of women. That craving drives the all-important male hormone, testosterone..

    Don't you think that after fighting for the attention of women, the "scientist" would go ahead and concentrate on other stuff: his scientific career? You know with one thing out of the way, even lesser mortals like us pay attention to other issues.

    Just a thought. I wonder what happens to women scientists when they get married!

  2. Re:Output, not potential by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This isn't the geniuses' fault; the problem is that there just aren't enough decent women to go around, so people have to take what they can get. So all the people you know, who you claim to be morons, are really just not lucky enough to find someone who enhances their life (at least the creative part of it), and are stuck with someone who saddles them with other crap.

    If our society raised women better, so that they'd pick better partners (not the asshole/badboy type), not become single mothers in their youth, get a good education, go into intellectual fields, not be whiny bitches, etc., then maybe we wouldn't have this problem and more of these genius men could find suitable companions.

  3. Being vs Becoming successful... by DrCode · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One thing I've noticed over the years: Women want a man to BE successful, but they often don't want to be married to a man who's doing the necessary work to become successful.

    (There's a similar thing with cars: If you're single, having a cool sports-car will help you attract women. Once you've married, she'll want you to trade it in for something more 'practical'.)