Researchers from the University of Illinois wanted to test a previously-held theory that introverted people who suppress emotions about sex and depravity are more creative than people who are more open and extroverted.
They discovered that Protestants, or people who grow up in a Protestant communities, can channel suppressed emotions more effectively than their Catholic and Jewish counterparts.
The research, led by Emily Kim along with Veronika Zeppenfeld and Dov Cohen, claims that its not that Jews and Catholics don’t suppress the same feelings about sexual taboos as Protestants, but they channel it into feelings of guilt, rather than through art or creative means.
The team of researchers from Illinois began by analysing a Californian study by Freud and Weber that began in the 1920s, which wanted to test if there was a connection between high IQs, creativity and religion.