Creativity, personality, and hoarding behavior

Compulsive hoarding is a debilitating illness that is characterized by excessive collection of and failure to discard items, irrespective of their uselessness or hazardousness. Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals who hoard may be more creative than individuals without hoarding behavior; however, this hypothesis has never been tested empirically. In the present study, we examined the relationship between hoarding symptoms and performance on a series of creativity measures. We also explored the extent to which hoarding symptoms were associated with factors such as personality, impulsivity, distress tolerance, and attitudes about money and the environment. Our findings revealed no significant associations between hoarding behavior and any measure of creativity. Hoarding behavior was also unrelated to attitudes about money or concern about the environment. However, consistent with previous research, hoarding tendencies were correlated with higher levels of neuroticism and impulsivity, as well as with lower levels of conscientiousness and distress tolerance. Implications of these findings are discussed.