We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative—characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral—characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive—excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.
Conflicts between groups are difficult to resolve, partly because humans tend to be biased in judging outgroup members. The aim of the current article is to review findings on the link between creativity and conflict-related biases and to offer a model that views creative cognition as an ability that may contribute to overcoming conflict-related biases. Our proposed model conforms to the twofold model of creativity. According to this model, creativity involves a generation phase and an evaluation phase, and these phases correspond to the neural mechanisms that underlie conflict-related biases. Specifically, we contend that the generation phase of creativity affects conflict-related biases by exerting an influence on stereotypes and prejudice, outgroup-targeted emotions, and ingroup empathy biases, all of which rely on the default mode network. Conversely, the evaluation phase of creativity, which is usually associated with activation in the executive control network and action-observation system, may be related to herding behaviors. Building on the shared mechanisms of creativity and conflicts, we propose that studies examining creativity-based interventions may be effective in promoting reconciliation.
The maintenance and escalation of intergroup conflicts have been explained by negative emotions and attitudes toward outgroup members. Considering that creative cognition entails the ability to generate diverse and new ideas, we sought to investigate whether creativity may contribute to overcoming negative emotions and attitudes associated with intergroup conflicts. Therefore, we examined whether individual differences in creativity predict conflict‐related emotions and attitudes in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To that end, we recruited Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs who identify themselves as Palestinian and administered the Torrance task of divergent thinking to assess the levels of originality and flexibility of participants. We also measured outgroup‐targeted emotions and attitudes toward the conflict. Results indicate that participants who demonstrate higher levels of original thinking, on average, reported higher levels of positive emotions toward outgroup members and were more supportive of conciliatory attitudes toward the conflict. Moreover, these associations were more evident among Israelis than among Palestinians. Finally, a mediation analysis demonstrated that originality predicts conciliatory attitudes through an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions toward outgroup members. This relationship was not moderated by nationality. These findings suggest that interventions based on creativity training may be beneficial to encourage reconciliation.
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