From their absurd dressing room demands to hairdryer-style rants at even the smallest interruption, artists, actors and musicians can often have a reputation for being difficult to get along with.

But now researchers claim to have found evidence that shows creative people tend to share the same personality traits as psychopaths.

In a series of tests, psychologists have shown that the most creative individuals show higher levels of emotional disinhibition, dishonesty and risk taking.

Psychologists have shown creative people tend to rate highly on psychopathic traits, but they say it tends to be more associated with prosocial traits than antisocial ones depicted in films like American Psycho (pictured)

They say, however, in many cases it appears creativity may be more associated with prosocial psychopathic traits rather than those that are antisocial, such as cruelty and meanness.

This means the individuals can still fit into society but may struggle to empathise with others.

CREATIVITY AND PSYCHOPATHY To study the influence of psychopathy, the researchers set up three experiments. In the first they used an online questionnaire to examine the creativity of 503 participants alongside a series of questions designed to examine the dark triad traits - narcissim, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. The second study examined specific traits such as boldness, meanness and disinhibition in 250 college students. A third set of 93 students were given a series of gambling and divergent thinking tasks while the electrical conductance of their skin was measured. The results showed that those who tended to be more creative also had higher scores for psychopathic traits, but particularly for boldness. Advertisement

According to Adrianne John Galang, a psychologist at De La Salle University in Manila, and his colleagues, creative people may need some of these traits to cultivate their talent.

They say it can help them make bold choices that are often associated with the best art or performances.

Writing in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the researchers said: 'We argue that emotional disinhibition, in the form of psychopathic boldness, is actually integral to some creative personalities and functionally related to the creative process.

'Generally then, a creative field might not just shape a person into a more arrogant or dishonest personality, it might be actively selecting them, not for the sake of having disagreeable traits, but because such traits meaningfully co-vary with creativity itself.'

Psychologists have long suspected creativity may go hand-in-hand with some psychopathic traits.

Anecdotally, many artists and actors are well known for attempting to exert control over their surroundings with demands and rules about how others interact with them.

There are also famous examples of actors who have stopped performances to lambaste someone in the audience or because something was not to their liking.

Stories of artists who struggled through a series of failed relationships and were even cruel to those around them have also helped to fuel suspicions that creativity may have roots in psychopathy.

Dysfunction of the orbitofrontal cortex (pictured), among other areas, is implicated in the etiology of psychopathy. Researchers say some of the traits caused by this, however, may make people more creative

However, there are also many other psychological disorders that have also been linked to creative minds, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism.

'SUCCESSFUL' PSYCHOPATHY Successful psychopathy is a controversial idea - but it's not a new one. In 1941, American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley was among the first to highlight this paradoxical condition in his book The Mask of Sanity. According to Cleckley, the psychopath is a hybrid creature, donning an engaging veil of normalcy that conceals an emotionally impoverished and profoundly disturbed core. In Cleckley's eyes, psychopaths are charming, self-centered, dishonest, guiltless and callous people who lead aimless lives devoid of deep interpersonal attachments. But Cleckley also alluded to the possibility that some psychopathic individuals are successful interpersonally and occupationally, at least in the short term. In a 1946 article, he wrote that the typical psychopath will have 'often outstripped 20 rival salesmen over a period of six months, or married the most desirable girl in town, or, in a first venture into politics, got himself elected into the state legislature'. Advertisement

To study the influence of psychopathy, the researchers of the latest study set up three experiments.

In the first they used an online questionnaire to examine the creativity of 503 participants alongside a series of questions designed to examine the dark triad traits - narcissim, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

The second study examined specific psychopathic traits such as boldness, meanness and disinhibition in 250 college students.

A third set of 93 students were given a series of gambling and divergent thinking tasks while the electrical conductance of their skin was measured.

The results showed that those who tended to be more creative also had higher scores for psychopathic traits, but particularly for boldness.

The final study showed that those who tended to have the highest levels of emotional disinhibition showed less arousal during the gambling task and also tended to be more creative.

The researchers said traits they detected tended to be more matched with prosocial psychopaths than the antisocial model of the condition.

Cultivating some of these traits and discouraging others, however, could also help to improve creativity in the future.

'We show, antisocial behaviours of the kind associated with psychopathic meanness and disinhibition do not seem essential to the creative personality. Instead, they just happen to coincide with it,' the researchers continued.

Characters such as Loki (pictured from the film Thor) from mythology are thought to typify the psychotic creative types as they are extremely clever but have little empathy for others or inhibition in their actions

'If the model proves useful going forward, it might be the cultivation of forms of boldness, while seeking to mitigate the more harmful forms of disinhibition, which would be the key to fostering creativity in both educational and professional settings.

'The trickster, thief, and rascal are figures of myth that straddle both virtue and vice.

'Whether as a hero or a villain, such as Loki, tricksters appeal to audiences because of their ability to solve problems through cleverness, and always with liberal applications of skullduggery.

'It could turn out that the price of human discovery, whether we like it or not, is to give the Trickster more credit.'