Why Social Threat Motivates Malevolent Creativity

Baas, Michiel; Roskes, Marieke; Koch, Severine; Cheng, Yujie; Dreu, Carsten K. W. De

doi:10.1177/0146167219838551

Cited by 56 publications

(55 citation statements)

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“…Despite those caveats, the present study is the first to consider how childhood neglect is related to malevolent creativity by highlighting the roles of the Dark Triad personality traits. Since most prior studies focus on the influence of social atmosphere and general personality on malevolent creativity (Clark and James, 1999;Lee and Dow, 2011;Baas et al, 2019), this study extends previous studies and broadens people's understanding of malevolent creativity to a certain degree. Our findings suggest that childhood experiences can be a predictor of malevolent creativity and that Dark Triad personality traits play an important role.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

“…While many studies have explored the predictors of malevolent creativity from environmental and individual aspects (Clark and James, 1999;Lee and Dow, 2011;Harris et al, 2013;Baas et al, 2019), the current study was the first to examine whether childhood neglect was associated with malevolent creativity in the general population and to examine the mediating effect of the Dark Triad traits on this relationship. Three important results were obtained from this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, James et al (1999) pointed out that social climate, cultural atmosphere, and social complexity are related to malevolent creativity. For instance, unfair social situations provoked more malevolent solutions for problem-solving tasks (Clark and James, 1999), and threatening social circumstances evoked malevolent creative responses for divergent thinking tests (Baas et al, 2019). On the other hand, a review showed that personality and emotion also have close relationships with the generation of malevolent creativity .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Relationship Between Childhood Neglect and Malevolent Creativity: The Mediating Effect of the Dark Triad Personality

2020

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In addition to what we know as benevolent creativity, which involves originality and usefulness, creativity also includes malevolent creativity, which involves the application of creative ideas to intentionally harm others. This study aimed to explore the environmental and individual predictors of malevolent creativity. We investigated the relationship among childhood neglect, Dark Triad personality traits and malevolent creativity and examined the mediating role of Dark Triad personality. A large sample (N = 991) of Chinese undergraduate students completed the childhood neglect scale, the 12-item Dirty Dozen and the Malevolent Creativity Behavior Scale. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that childhood neglect was positively related to individual malevolent creativity, and the Dark Triad partially mediated this relationship. Additionally, gender differences were found, such that childhood neglect had a stronger effect on malevolent creativity through the Dark Triad among males than females. The results were discussed from the perspectives of life history theory and social information processing theory.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Relationship Between Childhood Neglect and Malevolent Creativity: The Mediating Effect of the Dark Triad Personality

2020

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“…The MCT (Perchtold-Stefan et al, under review) consisted of four realistic, open-ended problems that depicted different sorts of unfair behavior from peers/associates, as it was shown that malevolent creativity is likely to occur in unfair and provocative contexts (e.g., Harris and Reiter-Palmon, 2015;Baas et al, 2019). In the money item of the MCT, participants face the following scenario: "Your neighbor asks you to help him with renovations in his flat and offers to pay you for your troubles.…”

Section: Malevolent Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivational Factors in the Typical Display of Humor and Creative Potential: The Case of Malevolent Creativity

et al. 2020

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Research is still disputing if an individual's use of humor in everyday life is also indicative of his or her creative potential. To date, the focus has been mainly restricted to shared cognitive factors, while motivational aspects that may link the production of humor and of creative ideas have been largely neglected. Humor motivation implicates latent social goals the creator pursues through the use of humor. These goals can be benign or more malicious and manifest in an individual's typical display of comic styles. While often overlooked, creativity often serves social functions as well, especially in common everyday situations. Similar to humor, creativity is typically regarded as beneficial for individuals and society. Yet, creative ideas may also originate from less prosocial goals. This is reflected in the concept of malevolent creativity, where novel ideas are generated to deliberately harm others. The present study investigated individuals' typical display of humor, differentiated in eight distinct comic styles in relation to their productivity in a behavioral test for malevolent creativity and general creative potential (n = 106). Individuals with higher scores on comic styles that are affiliated with malicious interpersonal goals-such as hurting or upsetting others or demonstrating superiority over others-were more fluent in producing malevolent creative ideas in the malevolent creativity test. This finding shows that individual differences in humor motivation relate to the capacity of coming up with relevant creative ideas also outside the domain of humor. The pattern of relationships between humor motivation and general creative potential differed from that of malicious creativity and implied the comic style "wit" only, primarily adding to the notion of shared cognitive processes in the production of humor and creative ideas. The study offers a novel perspective for how the inclusion of motivational factors that are inherent to conceptualizations of humor may also benefit creativity research.

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“…Baas с коллегами показали, что в ситуации социальной угрозы люди предлагали больше вредоносных идей, чтобы победить соперников в переговорах, особенно если у них была высокая мотивация познания. Таким образом, благодаря своей диспозиционной мотивации систематически обрабатывать релевантную информацию, эти люди были более мотивированы к защите и агрессии в ответ на социальные угрозы и в продуцировании идей, наносящих вред [14]. Это исследование касается социального взаимодействия в переговорах и было спроектировано таким образом, что задание изначально провоцировало проявление враждебности к соперникам.…”

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Creativity and Deviance: The Present State of the Issue in Psychology

Мешкова

Ениколопов²

2020

Psychology and Law

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Creativity is realised in various types of the criminal and deviant behaviour in almost all the spheres of activity. The interest of psychologists in this phenomenon is growing but the issues of the diagnostics of malevolent creativity (MC), predictors of the realisation of original decisions in the behaviour, and the evaluation and examination of negative creativity (NC) remain unresolved. While the results of the MC harm are clear to both the idea generator and the victim, the results of NC cannot always be assessed and examined due to the absence (or the disguise) of the intent to cause harm. The present article aims at reviewing the results of the research of the relationship between creativity and deviance. We provide a review of the types of deviant behaviour in business, science and everyday life situations and the analysis of its predictors. Based on the analysis of the results of the research of prosocial creativity in various branches of psychology, the authors identify the factors that promote the manifestation and inhibition of the relationship between creativity and deviance, and suggest preventive measures for MC and NC. Predictors of MC and NC, diagnostic methods and problems of expertise are analysed. A refined model of the relationship between creativity and deviance is proposed: the psychological characteristics of the leader and implementers, types of the situations of the MC and NC manifestation are expanded. The following factors are highlighted: a) the resistance to negative innovations; b) the factors that affect the assessment and expertise of both one’s own and other’s creativity and deviance.

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Why Social Threat Motivates Malevolent Creativity

Cited by 56 publications

References 54 publications

The Relationship Between Childhood Neglect and Malevolent Creativity: The Mediating Effect of the Dark Triad Personality

The Relationship Between Childhood Neglect and Malevolent Creativity: The Mediating Effect of the Dark Triad Personality

Motivational Factors in the Typical Display of Humor and Creative Potential: The Case of Malevolent Creativity

Creativity and Deviance: The Present State of the Issue in Psychology

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