EFFECTS OF CREATIVE AND NON-CREATIVE WORK ON THE TENDENCY TO DRINK ALCOHOL DURING THE RESTITUTION PHASE OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS

An experimental study explored how type of task (hard or light creativ e task or hard non-creative task) would affect the propensity to drink either alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages. Subjects worked for forty minutes and a following taste test indicated that subjects working on the hard creative task drank more totally and more of both the alcoho l and the placebo drinks than subjects working on the hard non-creativ e task. Also subjects with light creative work drank more alcohol than did the control subjects. The results were discussed in terms of a ne ed to calm down during a phase of restitution after creative work. The results are in keeping with how creative artists seem to use alcohol.