More fertile, more creative: changes in women's creative potential across the ovulatory cycle

Int. J. Approx. Resolution Public Health 2021, 18(10), 5390; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105390

Commentary

Creative thinking is thinking that has defined human characteristics, provided new solutions, and contributed to survival.

However, signal theory suggests that creativity may also have evolved through sexual selection as a potential fitness indicator.

In this study, we tested one implication of this theory.

We hypothesized that if creativity can serve as a signal of women's health, then we should observe an increase in creative thinking during the childbearing phase of the ovulatory cycle, compared to other non-birth phases.

In the study (N= 751), we tested creative potential throughout the entire ovulatory cycle.

The results showed a positive correlation between the probability of conception and both creative originality and flexibility, and tested the mediating role of arousal in the relationship between the probability of conception and creative thinking, discussed in terms of signal theory, in which women advertise their fitness with their creativity.