Introduction: Intoxication and Creativity
We now have an occasion to discuss intoxication and creativity. To start, sharing my experience may be the first step. It is fun to write especially if the same flows out from your personal challenges.
Growing up, I used to learn a lot from movies and TV shows. I gain a lot of inspiration from these movies, some are lessons, some are probably misconceptions.
Regardless, these have helped shape the way that I think today. Some perceptions in these movies are much controversial, such that men make better soldiers, or that women make better doctors.
There are also others that are less controversial and are much more fun. Let us take a look at intoxication for example. Intoxication is portrayed both in the good light and the bad.
In certain movies, drunk people are violent and are menaces to society. In other portrayals, however, intoxication helped the characters to overcome certain obstacles, that is to say that it was whisky that helped them gain the courage to confess their love for another character.
It really depends on the creative direction of the writers and directors, and the overall theme of the movie, but intoxication in movies has always been a staple theme. For this article, we’ll try to determine the relationship between intoxication and creativity.
Does being drunk increase creativity?
There have been several studies conducted to determine the relationship between intoxication and creativity. If you skim through all these studies, they will all say that there are no conclusive scientific studies that could absolutely say that being drunk will automatically make one more creative.
Yet, there are interesting findings that say intoxication does affect creativity. In several studies, researchers always make their test subjects drink just below the legal limit then put these people to the test.
Before we continue, it is important to note that anything that is too much is always bad, which means that intoxication could only affect creativity so much that finishing one bottle of whisky is not going to make a person super-creative.
If the person is too drunk, all his mental faculties are impaired and there is no way that he could function at all. Nonetheless, let us say that intoxication is just right.
Studies show that it helps creativity as people are more confident and allows their brain to wander a bit which allows them to think outside the box.
Are drunk people better at creative problem solving?
As already pointed out earlier, there are no conclusive studies that will absolutely say that intoxication will always increase creativity. What they always say is that intoxication may affect creativity if intoxication is just right.
Additionally, in these studies, there is always a comparison between people who were sober and people who were drunk but within the legal limit, that is to say that their intoxication is just right. The results are consistent.
In these studies, drunk people have consistently outmatched the sober ones in solving creative problems. As compared to the sober ones, the drunk people solve creative problems significantly more quickly and gave out the higher number of correct ones too. So, are drunk people better at solving creative problems?
Maybe, maybe not. In spite that, if we base it on the studies, drunk people are better. If you think about it, however, there is a common assumption that getting a glass of wine or whiskey actually helps solve problems.
The moment that we decide to go out to get a drink, it usually means that we have already reached a wall and we cannot move forward anymore. We decide to take a break and we usually get a drink. The confidence and the boost that we get from doing so actually may have helped us destroy that wall and move forward.
Does alcohol stifle creativity?
We have laid the predicate earlier about how intoxication may affect creativity. If we consume just right, it may be a game-changer. If we drink too much, or if the habit already becomes an addiction, then certain studies show that alcohol can actually stifle, and not, improve creativity.
In a study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, it is shown that while occasional drinking is okay, the long-term effects of heavy reliance on alcohol is definitely bad. Some of the findings point to impaired memory and learning problems as two of the nasty effects of the problem.
Another misconception about intoxication as a creativity-booster that needs to be pointed out is that while many great artists have heavy reliance on alcohol, they have actually done most of their important works while they were sober.
Just like in anything, getting too much of something may be counterproductive and it is the same with alcohol. When we are too drunk, it would be impossible to finish work or to become productive afterwards since we are already unable to get hold of our mental faculties.
Moreover, if the habit already becomes an addiction, instead of helping us to become productive and creative, we resort to possibly dangerous behaviors just so that we can just get our daily fix of alcohol.
Does beer increase creativity?
It seems that the positive impact of alcohol to creativity is also true specially with beer. There is one study from the University of Graz in Austria. The researchers conducted research involving 70 volunteers, between the ages of 19 and 32.
In this study, one group drank a non- alcoholic beer, while the other half drank beer with 5.2 percent alcohol. The researchers found out that drinking a small amount of beer before facing a creative activity or solving a creative problem is indeed positively impactful.
The idea is, added the researchers, there are activities that are better done with a sober mind. However, there are also instances that sobriety and too much focus are not needed for the job, that is to say that in the more creative activities, one may perform better with less focus and more spontaneity.
This leads to the “aha” moments and helps people to think outside the box which is consistent above regarding the positive impact of intoxication, in the right amount, to a person’s creativity.
Does being drunk make you more productive?
Being creative and being productive are not necessarily the same. When you are creative, you can think outside the box and attack a problem in a more unconventional manner, which is necessary for certain instances.
Despite that, as we have already pointed out, there are just jobs that require intense focus and consistency. To become truly productive, you need to retain concentration for a longer period of time because productivity is also about the quantity of accomplished work, not just the quality.
Nevertheless, even if we do not measure productivity with the number of tasks performed, one generally measures productivity with the satisfaction of having to put up work for a long period of time.
As opposed to productivity, creativity does not always demand this as sometimes, creativity relies on short burst of energy and outside the box thinking. With creativity, you aim to solve a problem that cannot be resolved with conventional thinking. Yet, productivity is required in a lot of jobs that require consistency and long-term results.
Does being drunk make things more fun?
This may seem like an easy question to respond to. A lot of people prefer getting some booze to make things more fun and interesting. This is the reason why alcoholic drinks and beer are a staple in most celebrations because people think that it is fun to have them at these events.
When the fighting gets too tough in the office, or at school, people go out and buy a glass of whiskey, or a few pints of beer, just to relax and destress. As we have already pointed out earlier, while alcoholic drinks may help improve creativity, a lot of people resort to drinking to get self-confidence.
In movies and TV shows, we see people drinking before they confess their love for another person. There are also portrayals where an actor drinks before an important business presentation just because he thinks that he needs to be ecstatic before meeting a client.
While drinking is fun for others, there are people who do not subscribe to this practice for a variety of reasons: others are allergic to it and some are prevented by religious beliefs.
Does alcohol help one to focus?
Short answer to this question is yes, alcohol helps us to focus. But, as we have already realized by now, there are factors and qualifications to this conclusion. First, it really depends on the type of task that we are supposed to do.
Second, it depends on the amount of alcohol that we ought to drink. If the problem requires creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, then alcohol may help us become a more spontaneous thinker and it helps us finish the job.
However, if the job requires consistency and sobriety, such as filing one’s tax returns, it is not really a good thing to take in alcohol before doing so.
Conclusion
Drinking is generally a good and fun thing, and we ought to be thankful that the beer, and the whiskey, and the rest of the alcoholic drinks in the world, were invented. They helped us in making celebrations more enjoyable and memorable.
As we have already discussed in this article, they can also help us become more creative which is important in certain areas in our lives. But just like in everything else, too much is bad and we out to drink responsibly.