Are Overthinkers More Creative? What the Perkins Hypothesis Says

First published February 3, 2016.

Are overthinkers secretly creative? There is a real scientific idea behind the claim, but it is a hypothesis, not a finding. In 2015, psychologist Adam Perkins of King's College London and colleagues proposed in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences that the same mental habit that fuels worry, a mind that keeps generating its own thoughts, may also feed imagination and problem-solving. They did not show that worriers are geniuses, and they said themselves that the theory still needed experimental testing.

Here is what the paper actually argued, what the evidence supports, and how anyone who tends to overthink can put that busy mind to better use.

Where the idea comes from

The paper, titled "Thinking too much: self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism", was published in August 2015 as an opinion piece. Opinion papers in this journal are a place for researchers to set out a new framework and invite others to test it. They do not report a new experiment.

Its subject is neuroticism, one of the "Big Five" personality traits psychologists use to describe people, alongside openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness. People who score high on neuroticism react quickly and strongly to negative events, recover more slowly, and are prone to worry, rumination and anxious moods. Everyone sits somewhere on this scale; it is a dimension, not a diagnosis.

Perkins and his co-authors wanted to explain why neurotic people feel distress even when nothing threatening is happening. Their answer centred on what psychologists call self-generated thought: the stream of ideas, memories and "what if" scenarios the mind produces on its own, without any outside prompt.

How worry and imagination might share an engine

The authors pointed to brain areas involved in noticing threats, including parts of the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. If these regions are unusually active, they argued, a person might keep producing vivid, negative scenarios on their own, and react to them as though they were real. In Perkins's words, high scorers on neuroticism may have "a highly active imagination, which acts as a built-in threat generator."

The creative twist follows from the same logic. A mind that habitually runs through possible futures, problems and alternatives is also doing the kind of mental simulation that creative problem-solving needs. Imagining what could go wrong is close cousin to imagining what could be different. In that sense, the hypothesis frames worry and creativity as two outputs of one underlying tendency, rather than suggesting that worry itself produces good ideas.

The authors also raised a practical point: treatments that try to dampen all self-generated thought might ease distress but could, in principle, blunt creativity too. Steering the content of those thoughts in a more constructive direction might be better than switching them off.

What the evidence does and doesn't show

It is easy to read headlines about this paper and come away believing that science has proven overthinkers are creative geniuses. That is not what happened.

• It is a proposal. The authors described their framework as new and not yet validated experimentally. The support they offered was circumstantial: brain-imaging studies whose results fit the idea.
• Famous examples are anecdotes. Coverage of the paper mentioned brooding historical figures such as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Pointing to a few troubled geniuses cannot show a general rule, because we rarely hear about the many anxious people who are not famous, or the many calm people who are.
• Earlier links are modest. Some studies before 2015 had found associations between neuroticism and creativity, but personality traits overlap in complicated ways, and openness to experience is the trait most consistently tied to creativity.

The line "Genius is pain", often attributed to John Lennon and quoted in coverage of the research, makes a memorable slogan. It is not evidence, and it can do harm if it persuades people that suffering is the price of talent.

The real costs of chronic overthinking

Whatever its creative upside, high neuroticism carries well-documented downsides. Research summarised in standard reviews links it to a higher risk of anxiety disorders and depression, to repetitive negative thinking, and to coping habits such as procrastination. It has also been associated with poorer physical health over a lifetime, although the direction of cause and effect is not always clear.

There is some good news. On average, neuroticism tends to decline as people mature, especially up to about the age of 40, and the environment people live in has a growing influence on it over the years. Worry is not a fixed sentence.

Evolutionary psychologists add a balanced view: being alert to threats probably helped our ancestors survive, which may explain why the trait persists. Like many human traits, it can be useful in moderation and costly in excess.

Turning a busy mind into something useful

If you recognise yourself as an overthinker, the hypothesis offers a gentle reframe: your mind is good at generating scenarios. The goal is to give that ability better material and a place to land.

• Write it down. Putting a worry or an idea on paper turns a looping thought into something you can examine, change or set aside. A notebook for "what ifs" can double as an idea journal.
• Ask the next question. When a worry appears, ask "and what would I do then?" Moving from threat to plan is the same simulation skill, pointed toward solutions.
• Give ideas a concrete outlet. A sketch, a draft, a prototype or a conversation turns imagination into something real. Rumination tends to stay abstract; creative work does not.
• Set boundaries on worry. Many people find it helps to set aside a short, regular time to think through concerns, and to postpone them outside that window.
• Look after the basics. Sleep, movement and time with other people all affect mood and the tone of our thoughts.

If worry is constant, feels out of control, or is affecting your sleep, work or relationships, talk to a doctor. Anxiety is common and treatable, and getting help does not cost anyone their creativity.

The balanced takeaway

The Perkins hypothesis is a thoughtful attempt to explain why some minds generate so much on their own, and it offers a kinder way to see people who worry. Still, it does not make worrying a measure of talent, and it does not mean anxious people should stay anxious for the sake of their art. Overthinkers may have a powerful imagination; the opportunity lies in choosing where to point it.

Sources: Perkins et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2015), DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.003; Pacific Standard: Neuroticism and creativity, two sides of the same coin?; Wikipedia: Neuroticism; earlier coverage via Higher Perspective and Idealist4ever.