Layperson perceptions of malevolent creativity: The good, the bad, and the ambiguous.

Abstract

Can creativity be used for evil (or simply bad or unethical) purposes? Much of the past research on this topic has emphasized how creative people are more likely to engage in socially undesirable or morally unethical behavior. Yet how do laypeople perceive this issue? This study presented 626 participants with 4 hypothetical situations and a total of 43 possible actions varying both in malevolence and creativity. A factor analysis of participant ratings of each action's malevolence revealed 5 levels of perceived malevolence (moral killing, legal, immoral/unethical, illegal/nonviolent, and illegal/violent). The per ceived creativity of these actions was nonlinear-actions that were morally complex or ambiguous were seen as being more creative.

Creativity’s Need for Relevance in Research and Real Life: Let’s Set a New Agenda for Positive Outcomes

“…Theories -Research -Applications 5(2) 2018 spite potential discussions about malevolent creativity (Cropley, Kaufman, & Cropley, 2008) or creativity's relationship with mental illness (Kaufman, 2014), my goal is not to challenge this notion in this article. Rather, I argue that because many laypeople believe in these negative associations (Cropley, Kaufman, White, & Chiera, 2014;Kaufman, Bromley, & Cole, 2006), creativity and creators are not always received well.…”

Los jóvenes que hacen teatro son más creativos: ¿mito o realidad?

“…Las tareas verbales ofrecen puntuaciones en los criterios de Fluidez (Número de respuestas dadas), Flexibilidad (tipos de respuestas ofrecidas por el sujeto) y originalidad (infrecuencia estadística de las respuestas). De acuerdo con el manual de prueba, tiene una Alfa de Cronbach de .85 y niveles aceptables de validez (Artola et al, 2008) -SAC, Self-assessment of creativity scale (Cropley, Kaufman, White, & Chiera, 2014). Adaptado de Kaufman y Baer (2004), este cuestionario evalúa la percepción que los participantes tienen sobre su propia creatividad.…”

Applying Creativity Research to Cooking

“…Existing theories and concepts from creativity research can be used as a springboard for developing new programs of research focused specifically on cooking. Indeed, just as other recent papers have called for expanding our view of what constitutes a creative domain to include malevolence (Cropley, Kaufman, White, & Chiera, ) and animal behavior (Kaufman, Butt, Colbert‐White, & Kaufman, ; Kaufman & Kaufman, ), cooking represents yet another viable domain for creativity researchers to explore and develop. We hope that this brief paper will spark continued work in this area.…”