The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest
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Date
2012
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Publisher
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Abstract
Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test
whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and a creative mindset
promote individuals’ ability to justify their behavior, which, in turn, leads to unethical behavior. In 5
studies, we show that participants with creative personalities tended to cheat more than less creative
individuals and that dispositional creativity is a better predictor of unethical behavior than intelligence
(Experiment 1). In addition, we find that participants who were primed to think creatively were more
likely to behave dishonestly than those in a control condition (Experiment 2) and that greater ability to
justify their dishonest behavior explained the link between creativity and increased dishonesty (Exper-
iments 3 and 4). Finally, we demonstrate that dispositional creativity moderates the influence of
temporarily priming creativity on dishonest behavior (Experiment 5). The results provide evidence for an
association between creativity and dishonesty, thus highlighting a dark side of creativity.
Description
15p
Keywords
creativity, ethics, morality, moral flexibility, unethical behavior