CORRELATIONS BETWEEN AVOCATIONS, SCIENTIFIC STYLE, WORK HABITS, AND PROFESSIONAL IMPACT OF SCIENTISTS

Forty male scientists (including 4 who eventually won Nobel prizes) we re interviewed four times between 1958 and 1978 concerning their work habits, use of time, hobbies, attitudes toward the arts and humanities , scientific attitudes, and related issues. The 38 who were still aliv e in 1988 then filled out a questionnaire concerning their use of vari ous forms of thinking (e.g., verbal, visual, kinesthetic), their avoca tions, forms and extent of physical exercise, and when they were most likely to have significant scientific insights (e.g., while working on a problem directly, while working on other problems, while relaxing, on waking). The questionnaire and interview information was then colla ted and statistically analyzed with regard to the impact of each scien tist to determine if any correlations exist between scientific success and avocations, preferred modes of thinking, use of time, energy, or related factors. Significant correlations were found between scientifi c success and particular modes of thinking (especially visual ones), b etween success and various hobbies (especially artistic and musical on es), between particular hobbies and use of particular modes of scienti fic thinking, between success and having a broad range of avocations a nd forms of physical exercise, and between success and the efficient u se of time to manage many competing vocational and avocational demands . We conclude that successful scientists have highly integrated networ ks of enterprise, whereas less successful colleagues tend to have fewe r nonscientific activities that they do not integrate. They develop no nfunctional networks of enterprise in which activities compete against , rather than sustain, each other.