The dark side of creativity: Original thinkers can be more dishonest.

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 (Experiments 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.

Dishonest behavior is not affected by an image of watching eyes

“…In Experiment 2, participants had to judge which side had more dots as quickly as possible, but the final payments they received depended on the number of times they chose the right-hand side of the square rather than the side with more dots (this task was modified from Gino & Ariely, 2012;Gino, Norton, & Ariely, 2010). Thus, the conflict in this task was between providing an accurate answer and obtaining more profit, and the extent of dishonesty was measured by the ratio of the number people who chose the righthand side relative to the amount.…”

Untitled

“…It would also follow that this circular feedback mechanism increases the breadth and quality of stable states. Given that both flexibility and adaptability have been linked to the "darker side of creativity" (e.g., deception, criminality; e.g., Gino & Ariely, 2012), it might also be constructive to explore how these self-regulatory processes contribute to both adaptive and maladaptive features of creative thinking, thus extending the application of this model into social domains.…”

Escala de Identidade Moral: Evidências de Validade para o Contexto Brasileiro

“…Apesar de a literatura destacar que pessoas criativas tendem a se comportar de forma mais antiética (Gino & Ariely, 2012), não há estudos que apontem para a existência de relação positiva ou negativa entre criatividade e identidade moral.…”