Life

And the Least Sexy Career Is...

Creativity can come in a lot of different forms, from drawing and painting to city planning to journalism, but some types of creativity are sexier than others, according to a new study led by psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman at the University of Pennsylvania. The study used an ethnically diverse sample of 815 college undergraduates who either identified as male or female and were asked to rate the sexual attractiveness of different forms of creativity. It was found that they both preferred ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity over applied/technological and everyday/domestic forms. So, even though advertising is technically a creative career, it was ranked to be the least sexy because the creativity is applied in a way that, from an evolutionary stance, don't evoke strong emotions in the perceiver and therefore decreases the chance of sexual response. Sorry, computer programmers, it turns out our libidos are more excited by people who write music than people who write programs.

Most of the top 10 least sexy creative careers are pretty much expected, like gardening or "presenting a math or science paper" (can we really even call that creative?) whereas others come as a little bit of a surprise, like participating in a drama production (acting can be so sexy...Ashton Kutcher participated in his high school drama productions, after all) The rest of the least sexy include:

  1. Creating an ad campaign
  2. Interior decorating
  3. Writing an original computer program
  4. Making websites
  5. Gardening
  6. Presenting a science or math paper
  7. Exterior decorating
  8. Using math in a novel way to solve a problem
  9. Developing a new scientific, experimental design
  10. Participating in a drama production

The most sexy creative careers also hold some obvious things and some shockers (I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT SPORTS IS CREATIVE ENDEAVOR):

  1. Playing sports
  2. Taking a romantic, spontaneous road trip
  3. Recording music
  4. Making a clever remark
  5. Writing music
  6. Playing in a band
  7. Taking artistic photos
  8. Being a comedy performer
  9. Having a unique sense of style
  10. Writing poetry

Maybe I should take up "making clever remarks" more often in my Bustling as a fool-proof plan to make me irresistible to all the lovers-of-creative-types out there.

Images: Giphy