Skip to main content
Log in

Jews, Creativity and the Genius of Disobedience

  • Psychological Exploration
  • Published:
Journal of Religion and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Jews comprise less than one percent of the world’s population; however, in the second half of the twentieth century and in the twenty-first century Jews have been awarded more than 25 % of the Nobel Prizes. Why are Jews so creative? Some have claimed, they are genetically more intelligent as determined by IQ tests. Whereas there is an intelligence threshold people must reach before being highly creative after this threshold is reached there is no strong relationship between creativity and intelligence. Creative innovation is heavily dependent upon disengagement and divergent thinking as well as subsequent convergent thinking and productivity. The mean by which a person’s brain functions is dependent upon both nature (genetically determined) and nature (learned). In regard to nature, from their earliest age many Jewish children are encouraged to question as well as taught that disobedience in the pursuit of truth and justice is not only justified but is also desirable. Thus, disobedience in this regard is not the cultivation of insolence, but rather gives rise to disengagement and divergent thinking, the critical elements of creativity. Training can also alter the brain, and the Jewish people success in creativity may not be related to their genetically determined IQ, but rather the learned propensity to earnestly question and seek better alternatives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andreasen, N. C., & Glick, I. D. (1988). Bipolar affective disorder and creativity: Implications and clinical management. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 29, 207–217.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berg, E. A. (1948). A simple objective technique for measuring flexibility in thinking. The Journal of General Psychology, 39, 15–22.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, K. F., Ostrem, J. L., Randolph, C., Gold, J., Goldberg, T. E., Coppola, R., et al. (1995). Physiological activation of a cortical network during performance of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: A positron emission tomography study. Neuropsychologia, 33(8), 1027–1046.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beversdorf, D. Q., Hughes, J. D., Steinberg, B. A., Lewis, L. D., & Heilman, K. M. (1999). Noradrenergic modulation of cognitive flexibility in problem solving. NeuroReport, 10(13), 2763–2767.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bronowski, J. (1972). Science and human values. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlsson, I., Wendt, P. E., & Risberg, J. (2000). On the neurobiology of creativity. Differences in frontal activity between high and low creative subjects. Neuropsychologia, 38, 873–885.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chotiner, I. (2013). Richard Dawkins keeps making new enemies. The famed atheist talks about the Pope, fiction, and why Jews win Nobel Prizes. New Republic, Oct 28, 2013.

  • Denny-Brown, D., & Chambers, R. A. (1958). The parietal lobe and behavior. Research Publications—Associations for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease, 36, 35–117.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, D. H. (1984). A follow-up of subjects scoring above 180 IQ in Terman’s genetic studies of genius. Council for Exceptional Children, 50(6), 518–523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazony, Y. (1998). The Jewish origins of the western disobedience tradition. Azure no. 4, Summer 5758.

  • Heilman, K. M. (2005). Creativity and the brain. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heilman, K. M., Nadeau, S. E., & Beversdorf, D. O. (2003). Creative innovation: Possible brain mechanisms. Neurocase, 9, 369–379.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Helmholtz, H. (1896). Vortage and Reden. In H. Eysenck (Ed.), Genius (p. 308). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). Central Religiosity Scale. Religion, 3, 710–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1890). The principle of psychology. New York: Dover.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Levav, I., Kohn, R., Golding, J. M., & Weissman, M. M. (1997). Vulnerability of Jews to affective disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 941–947.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, B. J., & Warren, J. R. (1984). Unidentified curved bacilli in the stomach of patients with gastritis and peptic ulceration. Lancet, 1(8390), 1311–1315.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milner, B. (1984). Behavioural effects of frontal-lobe lesions in man. Trends in Neurosciences, 7, 403–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, C. (2007). Jewish genius. Commentary, April.

  • Poldinger, W. (1986). The relation between depression and art. Psychopathology, 19, 263–268.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Post, F. (1994). Creativity and psychopathology: A study of 291 world famous men. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165(2), 22–34.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simonton, D. K. (1994). Greatness: Who makes history and why?. New York: Guilford press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisberg, W. (1994). Genius and madness: A quasi experimental test of hypothesis that manic depression increases creativity. Psychological Science, 5, 361–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, T. Q., Miller, Z. A., Adhimoolam, B., Zackey, D. D., Khan, B. K., Ketelle, R., Rankin, K. P., Miller, B. L. (2015). Verbal creativity in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia. Neurocase, 21(1), 73–78.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kenneth M. Heilman.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Heilman, K.M. Jews, Creativity and the Genius of Disobedience. J Relig Health 55, 341–349 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0139-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0139-x

Keywords

Navigation