Work, before being a fulfilling environment (in the best of cases), is above all a means of earning money. We get up in the morning largely because there is a salary at stake, it seems obvious. However, the financial aspect is not the motivation of a very specific part of the population if we are to believe a recent study. Dr. Roberto Goya-Maldonado, head of the center for psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of Göttingen in Germany, argues that creative people have a brain that is not motivated by the lure of profit. To reach these conclusions, the eminent specialist studied cases of 24 different people:half were creative with musicians, photographers, actors, painters or even sculptors while the other half did not describe themselves as "creative" and brought together insurance salespeople, dentists and administrative employees. Their brain activity – and more specifically their dopamine level, which is none other than the pleasure hormone – was observed in a situation where money was offered to them.
A pair of glasses in which appeared squares of different colors was given to the participants. The latter were informed that they could select the green square which made them earn money when it appeared in the image, but also the other colored squares which did not bring them anything. Their brain activity meanwhile was scrutinized through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and it turned out that the creative half had their ventral striatum – the part of the brain linked to the feeling of reward – much less active when the green square appears than the other non-creative participants. In a second test, the band was asked to actively "reject" the green squares, which released far more dopamine in the performers. Although the very small sample of participants does not make it possible to elevate the results to the rank of general truth, the study gives a clue as to the real motivations of creative people who, for the majority, are more looking for a job they love rather that well paid. Well, we imagine that Beyoncé, Richard Orlinski or Jennifer Lawrence do not spit on their colossal income now that they have managed to make a name for themselves... But the research remains very interesting!
