Article ID: CBB266322859

Genius and premature birth: little evidence that claims about historically eminent scientists are accurate (2021)

unapi

A number of very eminent and highly creative individuals are often claimed to have been born prematurely, and the idea that widely recognised scientific geniuses such as Newton, Kepler, and Darwin were preterm has become a cultural meme through the popular press, and through popular and academic science books. This potentially raises very important questions, related to the nature and origin of creativity and innovation, as it has been suggested that prematurity and genius may be linked. Here, we review suggested links between prematurity and genius, in terms of psychological traits associated with genius, and compare the percentage of top geniuses in Murray’s Human Accomplishment who are claimed to have been born prematurely to that of Western populations in general. Although a significant number of those in Murray’s sample have been asserted to be preterm, we found that none of them could be said with certainty to have been so, refuting the hypothesis that there is a clear connection between prematurity and scientific genius.

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Authors & Contributors
Michaels, Paula A.
Oren-Magidor, Daphna
Patrick Ellis
Waggoner, Miranda R.
Golaszewski, Devon
Wu, Yi-Li
Concepts
Reproductive medicine
Childbirth
Medicine
Obstetrics and pregnancy
Women and health
Medicine and religion
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
17th century
Renaissance
20th century, early
20th century
Places
United States
Italy
France
England
Greece
Germany
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