Exploring dark creativity: the role of power in an unethical marketing task

Abstract

Creativity is seen as a significant driver for successful marketing activities. However, little attention is paid to its shady side and little research on the prerequisites for unethical behaviour of marketing experts and executives is on hand. In our experimental study, we examine the mutual influence of power, honesty-humility, and benevolent creativity as predictors for 'dark creativity' (the use of creative ideas for malevolent actions). Participants (N ¼ 387) were randomly assigned to a high vs. low power condition (role of marketing director vs. marketing intern). Dark creativity was correlated to benevolent creativity, power motive, and honesty-humility, but did not depend on the power condition participants have been assigned to. In a hierarchical regression analysis only benevolent creativity and power motive predicted dark creativity. Additional variance was explained by role identification. This article is the first to investigate the impact of power on creativity in an immoral occupational task. Our findings support the concept of dark creativity as a combination of cognitive abilities and motivational aspects. The manipulation of power condition should be replicated in further research.

A framework for antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention: Empirical evidence and research agenda

“…Compared to traditional entrepreneurship, risk-taking should be even more important in SE as social entrepreneurs bare the risk of failing twice—financially and in their social mission. While traditional entrepreneurs deal with financial risks alone (Dorado, 2006 ; Zahra et al, 2009 ; McCaffrey, 2018 ), social entrepreneurs also have to deal with high moral standards (Johnson, 2000 ; Wasilczuk and Łuński, 2014 ) which bare an enormous risk to backfire even when only slightly bent for the benefit of financial goals (Palmer et al, 2019 ). Consequently, SE is closely tied to risk-taking for why individuals with higher willingness to take risks should also be more drawn to careers in SE and should thus express higher SE-intention.…”

The complex relationship between creativity and consumer ethics depending on endemic corruption in emerging and developed countries

“…Is the former always beneficial to the latter? Recently, a few studies questioned the benevolence of creativity and revealed its “shady side” by introducing the concept of malevolent or dark creativity (Palmer et al, 2020), which emphasizes the undesirable outcomes of creative actions such as dishonesty (Gino & Ariely, 2012), crime (Eisenman, 2008), unconscientiousness (Wolfradt & Pretz, 2001), and others. While there is an increased interest in this area, only limited research has examined how ethical decisions are shaped by creativity, and it remains understudied, with many unexplored research questions.…”

“…Casali and Perano (2021) conducted a systematic literature review on ethical decision making and suggested that the external environment is a significant influencing factor but it has not received enough attention in over 40 years of research. Similarly, Palmer et al (2020) proposed that environmental and social influences may determine whether a creative outcome is good or not. These suggestions indicate that the external environment should be involved in studies to explain the inconsistent findings in the literature.…”

Predicting Innovative Work Behaviour in an Interactive Mechanism

“…There is no other option in this competitive world but to ‘innovate or die’; if not, organizations will lose their position to competitors [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. To reap the best possibilities in a volatile environment, the creative process engagement (CPE) of the workforce, together with the divergent process of creativity capabilities, have become a thriving force in innovative work behaviour (IWB) [ 4 , 5 ].…”